Blockchain-based system and method for purchase document transformation and accountability

ABSTRACT

A blockchain-based method for purchase document transformation and accountability is provided. Offer documents for a real estate transaction are maintained and a review of the documents is performed by comparing populated fields of each document with offer compliance guidelines. When the fields of the offer documents comply with the offer compliance guidelines, the offer documents are grouped as an offer for the transaction. Public and private documents from the offer are formed as separate data blocks, which are provided to a tier of supernodes. Each data block is added to a ledger of transactions via one of the supernodes. A copy of each data block is stored on each of the supernodes. An immutable record of each data block is transmitted from the supernode to a tier of network nodes and the immutable record of each data block is committed to a blockchain via each of the network nodes.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This non-provisional patent application claims priority under 35 U.S.C.§ 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent application, Ser. No. 62/728,051,filed Sep. 6, 2018, the disclosure of which is incorporated byreference.

FIELD

This application relates in general to identifying and populatingdocuments, and in particular to a blockchain-based system and method forlisting document transformation and accountability.

BACKGROUND

Real estate purchases and sales are the largest financial transactionsand investments for many people, especially with the increasing cost ofreal estate. Due to the cost and time required for a real estatetransaction, many individuals are infrequently involved in suchtransactions and may not be familiar with regulations governing thetransactions and issues that can arise. Additionally, real estatetransactions are complex and involve many details and issues.Accordingly, many purchasers and buyers choose to hire a knowledgeableadvocate to assist with the transaction, including a real estate agent,broker, or lawyer. Real estate agents and brokers can provide a party tosuch transaction with useful information, including options and risksregarding the transaction. Further, agents and brokers have legal andfinancial responsibilities to ensure that a transaction is successfullyperformed and that the transaction complies with all applicableguidelines and regulations. In the 1980's, state licensing officials andtrade organizations recommended changes to then-existing practices,which were more oriented to the interests of property sellers thanproperty buyers. Seeking more protection, buyers began requesting equalrepresentation. Today, transactions often include a “Listing Agent”representing the seller, and a “Selling agent” or “Buying Agent”representing the buyer. Hereinafter, the phrases “selling agent” and“buying agent” are used interchangeably with the same intended meaning,unless otherwise indicated. The buying agent provides advice andcounseling to the buyer, independent of the interests of the propertyseller.

For agents and brokers, the challenges of the real estate business haveincreased dramatically. Agents and brokers have always had legal andfinancial responsibilities to represent and inform their clients'interests, but the regulatory requirements have become more onerous,time-consuming, and complex. The professional requirements and practicesfor real estate transactions are established by communities. Workingwith professional boards and the Bureau of Real Estate, communitiesestablish regulations for required documentation and best practices.Regional requirements have become more demanding. As the number ofdocuments and procedures has increased, compliance has become moredifficult and error prone. Failure to comply with all of the regulationscan expose real estate brokers and agents to costly litigation andpotentially invalidate real estate transactions.

Unfortunately, over the years, the amount of documentation involved insupporting real estate transactions and financing of such transactionshas grown. The required documents have become increasingly numerous andcomplex, and assuring compliance has become more difficult. Thedocumentation requirements generally differ from one community toanother, so agents and brokers must pay attention to the differences inlocal regulations. They must also keep up with changes in theregulations for all of the relevant governing bodies for everytransaction. Also, governing bodies are overlapping and any transactionoccurring within the jurisdiction of both governing bodies, must complywith the regulations of the governing bodies. For example, there areoften separate regulations for a neighborhood, city, county and state inwhich a piece of property is located.

Ensuring compliance with all guidelines and regulations can be timeconsuming and difficult. However, failure to comply with the regulationscan potentially invalidate real estate transactions and can expose realestate brokers and agents to litigation and possible liability forfailed transactions. In addition to the property transaction itself,buying agents that represent buyers, must also perform and coordinateother activities and actions to help the seller prepare the property forsale. When a buyer decides to work with a particular agent, the buyersigns an agreement with that selling agent. The agreement lists thelegal responsibilities of the buyer and buying agent, including fulldisclosure of useful information, accounting on all matters,confidentiality in all matters, recognizing and upholding the buyer'sneeds, and negotiating a best price for the buyer. Once the agreement isformalized, the selling agent is responsible for finding properties onthe market that are of interest to the buyer, regardless of whether theproperties are listed with a multiple listing service. Locating aproperty for which the buyer wants to place an offer can includeidentifying, notifying, and showing available properties for sale thatare within most of the parameters set by the buyer. Further, preparingan offer for a property for sale can include an appropriate andcompetitive offer price, a timeline for closing on the property if theoffer is accepted, and whether inspections are requested, among othertasks. Failure to comply with the selling agent's obligations andresponsibilities can result in the loss of clients or property sales.

Currently, most real estate transactions are preformed manually,requiring an individual, such as an agent or broker, to identify,collect, and populate documents required to complete a real estatetransaction. The agent or broker must also ensure that the documentscontain any updates and are correctly populated. Such manual tasks canbe time consuming due to a number of documents required and thedifferent requirements established by differing regulations betweengoverning bodies.

Additionally, real estate brokers and agents representing clients areexpected to oversee the checking of real estate records, such as via atitle company. Due diligence includes checking public records to verifythat the person selling the property is the last recorded owner and thatthere are no gaps in the history. For instance, in the United States,counties maintain land records and file records of new transactions.Typically, the county clerk maintains a database of property records andthe history of the transfer of property from one owner to the next isknowns as a chain of title. Although the law does not require that deedsbe filed with the county, in some areas, there may be consequences fornot filing. If a deed is not recorded, this creates a missing link inthe chain of title in the public record. In most jurisdictions, if atitle dispute turns into a lawsuit, the most recently filed deed onrecord typically takes precedence over a deed that has not beenrecorded.

Property transactions also include other important information that ispart of the public record, including records of easements. Aright-of-way easement grants other designated groups of people specifickinds of access to the property. For example, owners may be required togrant neighbors the right to travel over their land or they may berequired to give the gas company the right to access a pipe buried ontheir land. A property easement is recorded with the county. Similarly,a right-of-way grant may give an owner access to a neighboring property.For example, the driveway to an owner's property may not be entirely onthe owner's land. The grant may involve some responsibilities, such asmowing or maintaining the land. A buyer of property may discover aright-of-way grant that has gone through multiple previous owners.

A property seller usually receives a payment or “consideration” inexchange for granting a transfer of ownership. If the buyer is takingout a mortgage to buy property, then a lender will be involved. Lendersrequire clear title and typically require title insurance. Titleinsurance insures against financial loss from defects in title to realproperty and from the invalidity or unenforceability of mortgage loans.If the property owner has had others work on the property and has notpaid them, there may be liens or debts on the property which need to beresolved when a property is sold.

In summary, real estate transactions require much checking before atitle should be transferred or moneys should be exchanged. Oftenconsiderable money is at stake. These factors create a large and ongoingneed for accountability and transparency in the documentation andprocesses of real estate transactions. Real estate agents and brokersmust ensure that the document packages are correctly and carefullygenerated, and title for the property of the transaction is clear. Sucherrors and other failures to comply with the required regulations caninvalidate a transaction and can expose agents and brokers to costlylitigation, as well as stain a reputation of the agent or broker.

Further, real estate agents are also responsible for making a series ofjudgement calls about services and advice offered to clients, inaddition to ensuring due diligence has been performed. When buyersdecide to work with a buying agent to potentially purchase a property,an agreement with the buying agent is signed. The agreement provides thelegal responsibilities between the property buyer and the buying agent,such as full disclosure of information, accounting on all matter,confidentiality in all matters, recognizing and upholding the buyer'sneeds, and negotiating a best price for the buyer. When working withtheir clients, the potentials purchasers, buying agents perform purchaseservices, including locating potential properties, investigatingproperties, developing terms for offers, packaging offers, responding tocounter offers, and recommending and outsourcing selling services, aswell as transaction oversight and scheduling. The buyer client relies onthe buying agent to provide information about the services and to ensurethat the services are performed. Further, the agent advises the buyerpossible issues or doubts related to the title, such as a issues ofownership, encumbrances, liens, taxes due, easements, and any issuesabout the neighborhood or trends.

Documentation about the professional performance of buying agents isgenerally outside the scope of government-held public record systems andmostly covers information about the services performed by the buyingagent. The relationship between the buying agent and the buyer iscovered by a signed contract and the body of collected informationincludes personal information about the buyer that is heldconfidentially.

In the event that issues arise after the sale, preserving informationabout purchase services can be important for the buyer, the buyingagent, and sometimes other stakeholders, such as the brokerage. Incurrent practice, the records containing this information are generatedand preserved by multiple different sources including records kept bythe buyer, records kept by the buying agent or listing agent, recordsfrom financial institutions, reports from inspectors, reports from realestate researchers, and others. If after the sale, the buyer or otherstakeholders need to reexamine a transaction, they will want to retrievedocumentation about what was known or done while the transaction wasbeing developed and negotiated. Accordingly, the many manual steps andthe use of separate databases of records across institutions increaseerrors and raise costs of real estate transactions.

In recent years, news reports from many sectors of society have led toincreased public awareness about society's vulnerability to computerfailures. The news media frequently report on cyberattacks, identitytheft and data loss as well as data leaks, threats to informationinfrastructure, and privacy concerns. Governments have become moreconcerned and active in trying to protect and regulate computer systems.At the same time, the public use and dependence on the internet hasraised general expectations that computer services should be rapid,accurate and reliable and that important government-maintained publicrecords should have appropriate transparency for public use.

To support the incontrovertible associations of property assets withtheir legal titles, both the public and stakeholder transactiondocuments for real estate transactions need to accurately andtransparently represent and immutably preserve enduring property andtransaction information. Trust and reliability in real estatetransactions depend on the certainty that everything is accounted for.However, the current foundations for keeping records of real estatetransactions rely on an aging and fragmented set of institutions andlegacy computer systems that were created before modern computersafeguards were understood and made widely available.

An institutional challenge of the current approach is that the diverserecords concerning real estate transactions, such as county propertyrecords logs, financial records, title records, and so on are held bymultiple and diverse institutions, in diverse and varied formats oncomputer systems with widely varying security procedures, transparency,and provisions for public access. Every stakeholder institution has itsown data security procedures and its own policies regarding data backupand use of redundancy for security and is potentially and individuallyvulnerable to human and computer-based tampering. There is much room forimprovement in creating systems with comprehensive access, tamperproofguarantees and validity checks, and robust archiving for all of thehistoric records in property transactions.

Real estate agents and brokers need to cope with a myriad of stakeholderinstitutions with their legacy data bases and transaction-supportingprocesses that evolved in an ad hoc fashion as institutions adaptedcomputers to support their businesses and daily activities. There is agrowing gap between stakeholders' experience of real estate transactionsand growing public expectations for instantaneous and reliable access topublic records including records of property ownership. The challengesof compliance and transparency and enduring accountability today alsocreate unnecessarily high costs for real estate transactions. Further,although the stakeholder institutions in real estate transactions usecomputers and communication devices for messaging in the back-officework of supporting real estate transactions, most of the work is manual,time-consuming, error-prone, and expensive.

Blockchain is a continuously growing set of record or “blocks” that forma ledger of transactions. The blocks are linked and secured bycryptographic methods and provide an approach that is trustworthy andtransparent for the storage of the blocks. At least one county, CookCounty, Illinois, has utilized blockchain technology to transfer andtrack property titles. See,https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesrealestatecouncil/2018/01/12/three-ways-blockchain-could-transform-real-estate-in-2018/#2ef0cd403638(Jan. 12, 2018). Upon purchase of property in Cook County, the purchaserreceives a digital token and a traditional paper deed. Documents thataccompany the digital token can be used as proof of ownership. Theapproach by Cook County utilizes a Colored Coins protocol, which isbuilt over the Bitcoin blockchain to allow the digital tokens to begenerated. See Yarbrough, Karen A., Bockchain Pilot Program Final Report(May 30, 2017). However, such approach by Cook County fails to addressthe scalability problem of continuous property transactions and lack ofstorage space for the transactions, and fails to include a two-tierblockchain approach for publicly accessible and non-publicly accessibledocuments.

Further, other possibilities of blockchain utilized in the real estateindustry include recording key terms of a lease agreement on theblockchain and initiating payment of a security deposit and rent throughBitcoin wallets or bank accounts. Seehttps://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/financial-services/us-dcfs-blockchain-in-cre-the-future-is-here.pdf(downloaded Jul. 12, 2011). Possession of the property is transferred tothe purchaser and the agreement is recorded. However, no detailsregarding how such steps are performed on the blockchain are provided.Further, no distinction is made between publicly accessible andnon-publicly accessible documents.

Therefore, a need remains for assuring transparency and accountabilityfor property ownership records and other real estate transactioninformation for both publicly accessible and non-publicly accessibledocuments.

SUMMARY

Real estate brokers manage and drive real estate transactions. Brokerstry to provide services that meet the best needs of their clients whiledealing with the business challenges of complying with all governingregulations over real estate transactions, achieving transparent andenduring accountability over a diverse set of documentation, andcoordinating multiple parties and containing the unnecessarily highcosts of business.

Transactions and their document packages must be compliant with allgoverning regulations. Real estate regulations vary by region, withrequirements at each level including federal, state, county, city, andsometimes neighborhood. Failure to comply with the regulations canpotentially invalidate real estate transactions and can expose realestate brokers and agents to costly litigation. With today's complexityin regulations for real estate transactions and documentation, there isa substantial risk of human error. This situation has created a growingand unmet need for technological support and services for assuringdocument compliance for brokers and agents.

Real estate agents and brokers need to cope with a myriad of stakeholderinstitutions with their legacy data bases and transaction-supportingprocesses that evolved in an ad hoc fashion as institutions adaptedcomputers to support their businesses and daily activities. There is agrowing gap between stakeholders' experience of real estate transactionsand growing public expectations for instantaneous and reliable access topublic records including records of property ownership. Further yet,buying agents must make many important decisions while representing abuyer and such information surrounding an agent's decisions and actionsare generally maintained by multiple sources, including the agenthimself, the client, and the brokerage. However, accurately and safelymaintaining the confidential information is important in case of adispute between the agent and the client. The challenges of complianceand transparent and enduring accountability today also createunnecessarily high costs for real estate transactions. This situationhas created a growing and unmet need for technological support andservices for assuring enduring transparency and accountability fortransaction information.

Real estate transactions can be extremely complex and generally requiremany documents for review and execution to formalize the transaction.Currently, such transactions are performed manually via a real estateagent or broker that fills out each document. However, manual processingof the documents often results in inconsistencies of data across thedocuments, incorrect data values based on a failure to identify andenter updated values, data values that are not compliant with localregulations, and other errors.

Ensuring the correctness of the documents is extremely important becauseerrors in the documents may invalidate the associated real estatetransaction. Representations of documents that enable both humanusability and automation by allowing data entry and automated checkingof the data helps ensure data completeness, consistency, compliance, andcorrectness of the documents. Specifically, an automated clearing house(ACH) for listing services and assuring compliance is provided. The ACHserves buying agents, buyers, and other participants in real estatetransactions including stakeholders from outsourced services.Additionally, support is provided to buying agents in particular andtheir relationship to their clients—in regard to thecontractually-mandated and professional responsibilities and services totheir clients as a buying agent.

Further, ensuring that the real estate transactions are transparent andaccurate is extremely important. A specialized version of a blockchainapproach is tailored to support real estate transactions. By design,certified copies of all of the important records of a transaction arebrought together in a real estate transaction block and recorded in ablockchain ledger with a timestamp. All of the documents for atransaction are available at once in a single block on a blockchain.

Using blockchain, both public real estate transaction information andconfidential records of listing services can be provided. With respectto managing public real estate transaction information, an accurate,reliable, and tamperproof publicly-accessible record of the pertinentpublic information about real estate transactions is provided. Thisblockchain-based service serves the general public. With respect tomanaging confidential records of purchase services, documenting andpreserving a long-term private record of services and service choicesoffered by the buying agent is provided, discussed with the buyers, andultimately performed. This service is for reliable, long-term andauthorized access to confidential information about contracts andpurchase services for particular transactions.

Accordingly, automating purchase services, including packaging of anoffer, and performing compliance checking on the offer helps preventunintended error and failure of the transaction. Further, during atransaction of real estate, some documents are required for recordationof a completed transaction, while other documents generated, reviewed,or transferred during the transaction are not necessary for recordation,but can be helpful to an agent or client of the agent if a disputeregarding the transaction later arises. Thus, separately managing publicand private documents for the transaction is important to preserve bothsets of documents. The private or confidential records can focus onactions performed by the buying agent and buyer, correspondence betweenthe agent and the buyer, and listing of properties viewed or consideredby the buyer.

A blockchain-based method for purchase document transformation andaccountability is provided. Offer documents for a real estatetransaction are maintained and a review of the documents is performed bycomparing populated fields of each document with predetermined offercompliance guidelines via compliance logic. When the fields of the offerdocuments comply with the predetermined offer compliance guidelines, theoffer documents are grouped as an offer for the transaction. Public andprivate documents from the offer are formed as separate data blocks,which are provided to a tier of supernodes.

Each data block is added to a ledger of transactions via one of thesupernodes. A copy of each data block is stored on each of thesupernodes. An immutable record of each data block is transmitted fromthe supernode to a tier of network nodes and the immutable record ofeach data block is committed to a blockchain via each of the networknodes.

Still other embodiments of the present invention will become readilyapparent to those skilled in the art from the following detaileddescription, wherein is described embodiments of the invention by way ofillustrating the best mode contemplated for carrying out the invention.As will be realized, the invention is capable of other and differentembodiments and its several details are capable of modifications invarious obvious respects, all without departing from the spirit and thescope of the present invention. Accordingly, the drawings and detaileddescription are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not asrestrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system for document grouping andtransformation, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing, by way of example, the compliancesystem of FIG. 1 .

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing, by way of example, thecompliance information management system of FIG. 2 .

FIG. 4 is a screenshot showing, by way of example, an interactive formfor form element identifiers.

FIG. 5 is a diagram of an interactive form showing, by way of example, adocument template with defined form elements.

FIG. 6 is a diagram of an interactive form showing, by way of example,information for generating a data field identifier associated with adata field in a document template.

FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram showing a method for documenttransformation and compliance, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram of an interactive form showing, by way of example, atransaction cover sheet with data fields for obtaining data values.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing, by way of example, data models.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing, by way of example, a document templatelibrary.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing by way of example, an interactive form foridentifying document templates for a transaction.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing, by way of example, an interactive formdisplaying a document package.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing, by way of example, an interactive form forsearching for documents to add to a document package.

FIG. 14A is a diagram of an interactive form showing, by way of example,a portion of the cover sheet of FIG. 8 .

FIG. 14B is a diagram of an interactive form showing, by way of example,the portion of the cover sheet of FIG. 14A with a different data value.

FIG. 15 is a diagram of a document template with form elements forproperty price.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing, by way of example, the compliancesystem of FIG. 2 with listing services and purchase services.

FIG. 17 is a system diagram of the information management system of FIG.3 with purchase services and vendor services.

FIG. 18 is a diagram of an interactive form showing, by way of example,a different embodiment of the cover sheet of FIG. 8 .

FIG. 19 is an interactive form showing, by way of example, acomprehensive cover sheet.

FIG. 20 is a diagram of an interactive form for generating an offer or acounter offer.

FIG. 21 is a diagram of an interactive form for uploading documents.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing, by way of example, a cover letter.

FIG. 23 is an interactive form for displaying a document for buyerinspection elections.

FIG. 24 is a diagram showing, by way of example, an interactive form forgenerating an inspection request.

FIG. 25 is a diagram showing, by way of example, an interactive formshowing additional data fields for the inspection request of FIG. 24 .

FIG. 26 is a diagram showing, by way of example, an interactive form forgenerating a home warranty.

FIG. 27 is a block diagram showing a system for document transformationand accountability.

FIG. 28 is a flow diagram showing a method for document transformationand accountability via blockchain.

FIG. 29 is a flow diagram showing, by way of example, a process forselecting a supernode for block recordation.

FIG. 30 is a flow diagram showing by way of example, a process formaintaining confidential documents related to a listing transaction.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Glossary

Document package—a document package refers to a collection of documentsprepared for, signed, and executed by parties of a real estatetransaction. The package can include documents for listings or offers,including documents about real estate services performed in support oftransactions, such as proofs of availability of funds, contracts withreal estate agents and brokers, disclosures, inspection reports, andmarketing agreements, as well as other types of documents. Differentsubsets of a document package may be provided to different parties of atransaction. For example, different documents are typically provided forbuyers and sellers.

Completeness—testing a document package for completeness refers toautomated testing to ensure that all of the required documents areincluded in the package and that all required fields in the documentsare filled out. When specific information is provided as a value for afield, a trigger can add additional fields to the document beyond theinitial fields displayed. Additionally, received data may also triggerone or more additional documents to be added to the document package.

Consistency—testing documents for consistency refers to automatedtesting to ensure that values of related fields in the documents arefilled out in a semantically-consistent way. For example, every“initials” field for the same person should contain the same initials.Additionally, fields that have different representations for the sameinformation (e.g. “one thousand dollars” versus $1,000.00) should havethe same or compatible meanings. All related fields should conveyconsistent meanings.

Correctness—testing documents for correctness refers to automatedverification that data values and combinations of related fields havebeen verified by one or more authoritative sources. For examples,entries specified for street address, City, County, State, and Zip Codecorrespond to a correct combination recorded by an authoritative entity.The specified street address is within the specified city, the specifiedcity is within the specified county, the specified county is within thespecified state, and the zip code corresponds properly to thecombination, and the property exists. Another example is thatinformation about a “parcel number” for a property paired with anaddress corresponds to county land records. Another example is a bankstatement vouching for the availability of funds. There can be differentrequirements on what it means for a source to be “authoritative,”including having a well-known identity, using secure anddigitally-signed communications, meeting government-approvedrequirements, backing by financial guarantees, and meeting certificationrequirements of legal, real estate, and banking institutions.

Compliance—testing documents for compliance refers to automated testingto ensure that the data values provided in the documents and thetransactions proposed comply with all legal requirements. For asuccessful property transaction, no required documents can be omittedand the document versions must meet current requirements. In real estatetransactions, there are often multiple governing organizations,including federal, state, county, city, and sometimes localorganizations such as property owner associations. State and federallaws require that purchasers of property be informed of certainconditions of the property for consumer protection. Further, governingorganizations may require disclosure of the nature, limitations, andconflicts regarding the responsibilities of the real estate agents.Compliance requires that the document package be complete, consistent,and correct.

Confirmation—brokers and agents are obligated to inform their clientsabout important information in the transactions. Common practice forcompliance for avoiding potential legal liability is to provide explicitplaces in the documents for dated confirmation signatures on documentsand for particular data fields. The steps involved include assuring thatthe documents include proper places for signatures or initials and datesin the documents presented to clients and others and also checking thata document package is thoroughly checked that all required signatures orinitials are properly filled out and dated by clients.

Active documents—refer to programmatically-supported information thatcan be presented in a human-readable and legally appropriate form(“documents”) in a computational medium, with a computational substrate(“active document) that enables people to fill in or select informationand to interact with it, that efficiently supports informationprocessing of the information such as checking it for completeness,consistency, correctness, compliance and confirmation. In this way,active documents support understanding and processing of information bypeople and active computational agents intended to assure that a realestate transaction is compliant with requirements.

Transaction identifier—a string of numbers and/or letters that uniquelyidentify a specific transaction of property.

Form element—corresponds to a region on a form that takes a value from adata field.

Form element identifier—a string of numbers and/or letters that areunique to a particular form element in a document.

Form element name—a human-readable name used to describe and identify aparticular form element in a document.

Data field—location for storage of data, such as in a database.

Data field definition—human-readable information describing anassociated data field in the database to which the data field definitionis assigned and can include data field identifiers.

Data field identifier—a string of numbers and/or letters that uniquelyidentify a specific data field in the database.

Data field values—data values that populate a data field.

Bureau of Real Estate (BRE)—is a state level agency that makes rules forreal estate transactions.

Conveyance—is the act of transferring an ownership interest in realproperty from one party to another. Conveyance also refers to thewritten instrument, such as a deed or lease that transfers legal titleof a property from the seller to a buyer.

Escrow—refers to money held by a third-party on behalf of transactingparties. The duty of a title and/or escrow company is to act as aneutral third party. The escrow company holds all documents and moneyuntil all of the terms and conditions in the contract have been met andthe property is in title insurable condition. The transfer can then bemade from the Seller to the Purchaser. Title companies do not work forthe Seller or for the Purchaser. They are employed by both parties andact only upon mutually agreed upon written instructions. In Arizona, atitle company, or an escrow company, rather than an attorney, servesthis purpose.

Title—is a bundle of rights in a piece of real estate in which a partymay own either a legal interest or equitable interest. The rights in thebundle may be separated and held by different parties. It may also referto a formal document, such as a deed, that serves as evidence ofownership. Conveyance of the document may be required in order totransfer ownership in the property to another person.

Title insurance—is a form of indemnity insurance which insures againstfinancial loss from defects in title to real property and from theinvalidity or unenforceability of mortgage loans. The vast majority oftitle insurance policies are written on land within the United States.Unlike some land registration systems in countries outside the US, theUS states' recorder of deeds generally does not guarantee indefeasibletitle to those recorded titles. Title insurance will defend against alawsuit attacking the title or reimburse the insured for the actualmonetary loss incurred up to the dollar amount of insurance provided bythe policy.

Listing Agent—represents the seller in a real estate transaction.

Buying Agent (also known as Selling Agent)—represents the buyer in areal estate transaction.

Compliance

Real estate transactions are complicated and time consuming. Currently,such transactions are performed manually by a real estate agent orbroker for a stakeholder, which is commonly the buyer or seller of aproperty that is the focus of the transaction. The manual processincludes identifying and collecting required documents for all governingjurisdictions, identifying and applying all relevant and currentjurisdictional regulations to the documents, populating the documentwith required data, checking that the populated data is consistent,accurate and compliant with the regulations, revising the documents wheninformation changes, incorporating new information arising fromnegotiations between the parties of the transaction, adding newdocuments when new requirements are enacted, providing the completeddocuments to the other party of the transaction, and coordinatingsignatures of the documents. However, due to the increasing number ofdocuments and constantly changing regulations, there is a substantialrisk of human error, which can, at times, invalidate the transaction.Further, even if the documents are completed electronically, computersare currently unable to verify or ensure compliance of the populateddata based merely on the electronic preparation of the transactiondocuments.

Automatic document transformation and compliance can prevent error andreduce an amount of time required to identify and complete the requireddocuments. However, automating such document transformation in realestate transactions is challenging and many factors must be consideredto ensure that automated document transformation and compliance isaccurate, quick, and reliable. The challenges include designingrepresentations for documents and document packages that enable bothhuman usability and automation. Specifically, the document informationshould be presentable in natural language, able to be printed orpresented in digital media, while also ensuring that the information isin a form practical for information processing. The informationprocessing can include symbolic and numeric processing of data valuesentered into the documents, including determining whether fields arepopulated with proper values, enabling entry of data fields manually orautomatically and comparing the data values with reference values andconstraints. To perform such steps, information processing can requireaccess and integration with one or more databases, networked informationexchange with trusted and authoritative servers, and maintaining ahistory or log of changes to the documents and data values.

Other challenges include integrating automated information processingwith ongoing human activities with respect to the documents, includingautomatically keeping track of a status of multiple interdependentactivities and related services, coordinating activities and documentchanges, and managing incremental and ongoing document and informationchanges, such as ensuring compliance when information changes during atransaction. To overcome such challenges, the automatic documenttransformation system, as discussed in detail below, includes amulti-tier system that utilizes data models for checking and automatingcompliance, as well as computational agents, and multiple networked,authenticated and cloud-based servers, which allow a computer to performthe task of compliance.

Further, process logic associated with the document data fields infersdependencies and interactions with other steps in the documentgeneration and transformation process, and can automatically addlanguage and data fields when necessary. Further, the process logicresolves the difficulties in receiving piecemeal discovery oftransaction issues by dynamically updating the documents to includenewly discovered issues and requirements, as well as changes to thedocuments and data values. Further, the compliance status of documentsand field values can change as information changes during a transaction.

Compliance System Architecture and Operation

Document transformation and compliance checking reduces errors duringreal estate transactions to ensure that the transactions aresuccessfully and accurately completed. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showinga system for document grouping and transformation, in accordance withone embodiment. Real estate agents 11 or brokers 12 assisting a party orstakeholder 13 to a real estate transaction can access a complianceserver 15 via an internetwork 29, such as the Internet, to identify,prepare, and verify documents for the transaction as a compliance system15. The real estate agents and clients of the real estate agents orbrokers can access, fill in, and sign documents for the transaction, asdescribed in commonly-owned U.S. Patent Application, titled “System andMethod for Document Transformation and Compliance, filed Sep. 4, 2019,the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference. In afurther embodiment, the compliance system 15 can be executed by two ormore servers.

In one embodiment, the compliance system 15 can operate via a cloudcomputing environment, which allows users, such as the agents, brokers,and parties to the transaction, to access and utilize remotely-storedapplications (not shown) of the compliance system without requiring theusers to install software or personal data. The users can access thecompliance system 15 via a computing device, such as a computer or amobile computing device (not shown), including a cell phone, laptop, ortablet.

The compliance system 15 can include a compliance information managementsystem 16, a compliance performance system 17, a compliance outreachsystem 18, an input port 31 to receive compliance rules, databases ofaddresses and document templates, and an output port 32 to providepopulated and checked document packages for a transaction. Thecompliance information management system 16 encodes information andlogic representations for automating compliance of the transactions.Real estate subject matter experts 14 and information technologyspecialists 30, among other individuals, are responsible for thecreation and maintenance of the information and logic used by thecompliance system 15. For example, subject matter experts 14 can curateand annotate a library of documents 24 for real estate transactions thatis stored by a database 19 associated with the compliance system 15. Thelibrary of documents is discussed in detail below with respect to FIG.10 . The documents reflect different jurisdictional transactionrequirements, including federal, state, county, city, and localcompliance requirements. Meanwhile, information technology specialists30 can encode, check, embed, and maintain compliance logic executed bycomputational agents of the compliance system with the documents in thelibrary and associated databases.

The information management system 16 also enables the complianceperformance system 17 to support and automate real estate transactions.For instance, the compliance performance system 17 records informationfor a transaction, selects a set of documents for the transaction basedon at least a portion of the recorded information, and transformsdocuments in the set by populating form elements of one or more of thedocuments processed by the information management system 16. The realestate brokers 12, agents 11, support staff, and parties 13 can providethe information for the transaction via a form or coversheet. Based onthe received information, the compliance performance system can populatethe documents on which automatic compliance is performed.

During or after population, the performance system 17 performscompliance checking of the document set for consistency, correctness,completeness, and compliance, as well as confirmation. The complianceoutreach system 18 interacts with third-party institutions 20, 22, asauthoritative sources, to access transaction documents 28,jurisdictional regulations 27, property records (not shown), andfinancial data 26 for compliance checking with the set of populateddocuments. The third-party institutions can include city or countyproperty records, real estate boards, financial institutions, orjurisdictional real estate regulatory institutions, including federal,state, county, city and neighborhoods jurisdictions. Other third-partyinstitutions and document types are possible.

Any errors in the documents regarding consistency, completeness,correctness, and compliance of the data can be identified via theperformance system 17. In one embodiment, errors are detected at thetime data is entered. The error can be flagged, making a visible notefor stakeholders and preventing an erroneous value from being acceptedand propagated in the document set. The note can suggest corrections tothe data entry or prompt a user to correct the entry at that time. Inanother embodiment, the errors can be automatically corrected; however,in a further embodiment, a notification can be transmitted to one ormore of the broker, agent, or stakeholder for correction. Any time newdata is entered, the compliance checking process can automatically occurto ensure that no errors are present in the transaction document set.Once the documents are complete and correct, the documents can beprovided to the other party of the transaction for review and possibly,further revision.

The compliance information management system 16, compliance performancesystem 17, and compliance outreach system 18 work in conjunction witheach other to automate document transformation and compliance checking.FIG. 2 is a block diagram 40 showing, by way of example, the compliancesystem 15 of FIG. 1 . As described above, the compliance system 15includes the compliance information management system 16, the complianceperformance system 17, and the compliance outreach system 18. At thelevel of the compliance information management system 16, real estatesubject matter experts 14 and information technology specialists 30provide information and logic representations that are encoded and savedfor performing compliance checking of the populated documents for a realestate transaction.

Documents are identified and populated at the compliance performancesystem level 17 during which users, such as brokers, agents, andstakeholders to the transaction provide data regarding the transactionfor populating at least a portion of the documents using the informationand logic representations from the information management system 16.Once populated, compliance logic from the information management level16 is applied to the documents to check for correctness, completeness,consistency, and compliance of the data and the documents, using theinformation gathered by the compliance information management system andthe compliance outreach system. Prior to or during the compliancechecking, the compliance outreach system 18 performs interactions withthird party systems to obtain additional information against which thepopulated documents of the transaction documents are checked.

Documents and Data Fields

Ensuring accurate document transformation and compliance requiresautomation information and logic representations. FIG. 3 is a functionalblock diagram 50 showing, by way of example, the compliance informationmanagement system 16 of FIG. 2 . Real estate subject matter experts andinformation technology specialists, among other qualified individuals,enter automation information 58 and automation logic 52 via atransaction coordinator platform 51. The automation information 58 caninclude field definitions 59, field values 60, a library of documenttemplates 61, and case documents 62, which are human-readable forms of acurrent state of transaction documents for each transaction, while theautomation logic 52 can include population logic (not shown) thatperforms document population and revision, and review logic to ensurecompliance, correctness, completeness, and consistency of the populateddocuments.

The document templates 61 can be obtained from jurisdictional realestate organizations, generated by the subject matter experts, oruploaded via the subject matter experts or a third party, as well asfrom other sources. Generally, each jurisdictional real estateorganization requires a pledge to a code of ethics and implements astandard of practice required by all members. Many brokers and realtorsbelong to one or more organizations to utilize document templatesprepared, maintained, and updated by the organizations. When new realestate regulations are implemented or laws are enacted, federally or bystate, those real estate organizations covering the affectedjurisdictions work to revise their documents and ensure that theirtemplates are up to date and in compliance with the new regulations orlaws.

Each of the documents in the template library 61 includes multiple formelements for entry of transaction data, including data field values,which are each stored in a data field, such as in a database orspreadsheet. The data fields values are used within a data model forchecking and automating compliance, and are accessed for populating theform elements. A real estate document template can include form elementsfor party names, street address, city, county, zip code, and sales pricefor the property of the transaction. Each data field that stores a datafield value is associated with a data field definition 59, which can behuman-readable information describing that data field to which the datafield definition is assigned. The data field definition is alsoassociated with a data field identifier, such as a string of numbers andletters, that uniquely identify a specific data field in the database.

The information of the data field definition can include one or moretext comments describing a meaning of the field, a data type, routinesfor converting a value into printable text, computational modules forcarrying out operations on a field, and a syntax checker. For example, adata field definition for a property address can include a data fieldname of “street address,” a data field identifier of “Street.Address.1,”a data type of “street-address,” a description of “this is the firststreet address for the property, must include a number and a streetname, and be consistent with a lot number in county records,” and amodule for operations to carry out entering, printing, checking,comparing a received data value to trigger compliance checking andsyntax checking.

The data field identifiers and names index access to populated datavalues for information processing and support specific access forautomating document population and compliance checking, includingcompleteness, consistency, correctness, compliance, and confirmationprocessing. Specifically, the syntax checker can be used to look up adata field value for populating a form element based on the data fieldidentifier of the data field definition associated with the data fieldand a transaction identifier assigned to the transaction. For example,returning to the street address example above, a property transaction,in which the data field for street address has been populated, can havean identifier “Trans CAL-387654-Smith-Jones-31 Dec. 2018.” Based on thetransaction identifier and the data field identifier, the street addressdata value “1302 Broadway E” is accessed and used to populate the datafield. Data field identifiers and names for related data fields within asingle document or across different documents are the same for differenttransactions. However, data values populating the data fields arespecific to a transaction and are usually different for differenttransactions. Each transaction can be associated with a data model,which can include the data field identifiers or names for documents in adocument package for the transaction and data values that populate datafields associated with the data field identifiers. The data models arediscussed in detail below with respect to FIG. 9 .

In one embodiment, the field definitions 59 are stored in a persistentdata access system, such as a relational database, a NOSQL database, ahash table, or other data access organization. For simplicity, we referto such methods collectively as a database. The database is a referencesource for field definitions. However, other kinds of linked datastructures for the field definitions are possible, such as hash tables,tree-based structures, and look-up representations and informationretrieval structures.

In a further embodiment, the field definitions 59 are distributed andcombined with a library 61 of the document templates so that the fielddefinitions 59 are defined and stored in a distributed fashion across aset of document templates, rather than in a monolithic database,separate database, or multiple databases for all document templates. Insuch embodiments, a document template is designated a reference templateand the source of the field definition. Having data represented asexplicit data fields enables controlled and specific access to thecompliance data and enables automating compliance checking andenforcement.

To access data values and populate form elements in the documenttemplates, the field definitions can be associated with the formelements, such as via a look-up table or stored with the form elements.FIG. 4 is a diagram showing, by way of example, an interactive form 130for form element identifiers 135. The interactive form 130 can bedelivered via a web page or directly by an application. The interactiveform 130 includes a listing 131 of “form elements” 135 that can bedefined by a real estate expert or information technology specialist andassociated with a data field in a document template. Each form element135 can be represented by a data box in a template and listed via a formelement identifier 131. For each form element, the interactive form 130can provide a name 132 of the element and actions 133, which can beperformed for or on the form element that corresponds with the formelement identifier 131 and name 132. The actions can include printing ofan associated data value, triggering when the data value has changed,converting the data value from a numerical value to text and vice versa,and when a new data value has arrived. Other actions are possible. Newform elements 135 can be added using an “add form element” button 134.

Data field definitions can be assigned to the form elements withindocuments templates by a subject matter expert or real estateprofessional that can work with information technology specialists todefine the data fields. FIG. 5 is a diagram of an interactive form 140showing, by way of example, a document template 143 with defined formelements 144. The interactive form 140 can include a data frame 141 anda display frame 142, and is displayed to the real estate experts andinformation technology specialists for entering field definitions to thedocument templates. The data frame 141 can provide tabs for metadata141, inputs, and experts, as well as other tabs. The metadata tab 141provides information for defining the document template 143 and can bepopulated by the real estate experts and information technologyspecialists. In turn, the defined document template is provided to theusers, such as the real estate agents and clients. Under the metadatatab 141, document information fields can be provided, including a datethat the document template was published and last edited, the documentname, the date the document template was last revised, a type oftransaction covered by the document, and a locale represented by thedocument.

The display panel 142 can display one or more pages of a documenttemplate 143. Each document template displayed can include one or moreform elements 144, at least one of which is defined for automatedpopulation and compliance. Each defined form element 144 is associatedwith a data field identifier that indicates a type of data to populatethe data field associated with the form element. The defined formelements can be highlighted, color coded, or otherwise marked toindicate a blank field that must be populated by the user.

The inputs tab of the data frame can be used by real estate experts andinformation technology specialists to define a form element with a datafield definition or provide information about the field definitionassociated with that form element. FIG. 6 is a diagram of an interactiveform 150 showing, by way of example, information for generating a datafield identifier associated with a form element in a document template.The interactive form 150 can include a data frame 151 and a displayframe 152. The data frame 151 can include tabs for metadata, input 153,and expert, while the display frame 152 can display a document 154 or aportion of a document 154 with one or more data fields 155. When theinput tab 153 is selected, a form element 155 can be defined using an“add input” button 158 after providing information about the formelement, including providing an editing string, which can be the formelement identifier 156, a page of the document displayed, and a name 157of the form element identifier, which in this example is “Buyer1And2.”Other information, such as tabIndex, top, type, value, and width can beused for formatting of the data field to populate the form element witha data value. The form element identifier 156 provides that the name ofBuyer 1 and Buyer 2, if any, should be entered into the form element 155for which the data field identifier 156 is associated. Under the inputtab 153, programming information for triggering processing logic is alsoincluded. For instance, selecting a particular box, may add additionalform elements to the form for answering by the user or add additionaldocuments to the document package.

A data field definition can also be included in the inputs tab toprovide information about the type of data to populate the form element,as well as information regarding where to access the data once receivedand how to process the data. Once the form elements of a documenttemplate have been defined, the template can be added to the documentlibrary for access and use by real estate agents for real estatetransactions.

Returning to the discussion with respect to FIG. 3 , users, such as realestate agents or clients, populate the defined form element with datavalues, which can be stored in the field value database 60. In oneembodiment, the data field values 60 are stored in a persistent dataaccess system, such as a relational database, NOSQL database, or anyother persistent data structure that can provide similar indexingfunctionality. The database 60 functions as a reference source for thedata values for all of the documents in the package associated with thetransaction. Additional information to assist information processing canbe stored together with the data field values or in additional storage.The additional information can include date and time the data was lastchanged, provenance information about who entered the data or where thedata originated, and links to related information, such as confirmationinformation that logs whether a stakeholder or user has confirmedreceipt and acknowledgement.

Automation logic utilizes the automation information, such as the datafield identifiers 59, to create and maintain accurate information forautomating compliance. The subject matter experts and informationtechnology specialists generate automation logic 52, which includespopulation logic for automating document transformation and review logicfor performing compliance checking of the documents. The review logiccan include logic for completeness 53, consistency 54, correctness 55,compliance 56, and confirmation 57, which is encoded by the complianceinformation management system, to automate compliance of the documentsfor a transaction. Completeness logic 53 ensures that all requireddocuments for a transaction are included in a document package and thatall required form elements for each document in the package arepopulated. Consistency logic 54 ensures that related fields in thedocuments are populated in a semantically-consistent way, as furtherdescribed below with respect to FIG. 14 . Correctness logic 55 ensuresthat the data field values are verified by authoritative sources, asdescribed below in detail with respect to FIGS. 8, 13A, and 13B, andcompliance logic 56 ensures that the packaged documents for atransaction comply with all regulatory requirements. Confirmation logic57 ensures that all of the required signature and date fields in thepackaged documents are populated.

Generating Document Packages

Each property transaction generally requires many documents to becompleted. Automated document transformation and compliance providesconvenient, accurate and timely checking and transformation of thedocuments to prevent errors. FIG. 7 is a functional block diagramshowing a method 80 for document transformation and compliance, inaccordance with one embodiment. A library of document templates for realestate transactions is maintained (block 81) for a plurality ofjurisdictions. The maintained documents include templates from differentreal estate organizations or that are newly generated. Each documenttemplate in the library has been processed by real estate experts andinformation technology specialists to group documents for differenttransactions in different jurisdictions and to define the form elements.The documents can be grouped using a document identifier or by storingrelated documents in folders; however, other methods for groupingdocuments are possible.

A user accesses the document transformation and compliance system togenerate a document package for a transfer of real property, such as asale or purchase of the property. The user can include a real estateagent, broker, or other types of real estate professionals, as well as aparty to the transaction. Different documents are relevant andappropriate for different stakeholders, which consequently have accessto different documents in the document package. For example, a listingagent can create transaction documents shared between a property sellerand the listing agent, such as a listing agreement, as well as documentsthat are provided to another party of the transaction, such as acounteroffer, which is compliance checked and included in the propertytransaction itself. Similarly, a buying agent can create transactiondocuments shared between the buying agent and client, and transactiondocuments, such as an offer, that are provided to another party to thetransaction. Further, different users can have different access to thedata transformation and compliance system. For instance, real estateagents and brokers cannot sign on behalf of the buyer or seller, whereasthe buyer and seller may not be able to access the same documenttemplates as the real estate agent or broker, such as when the documentsare only available based on membership in an organization from which thedocuments originated.

Upon access, the user can provide (block 82) information about theproperty transfer, such as a type of property transfer or propertyaddress, price, type, and owner, via a cover sheet. Specifically, theinformation can be provided as data values that populate the formelements in the documents. Other types of information are possible.

Based on the data values received from the user, a data model isgenerated (block 83). The data model can include the data values anddata field identifiers for corresponding data field definitions, as wellas additional information. Additionally, the data model is updated asdata values change, new documents are added, and new form elements areadded. Data models are discussed in further detail below with respect toFIG. 9 .

Prior to, simultaneously or after generation of the data model, apackage of document templates for the transaction can be generated(block 84) based on the received data values. For example, upon receiptof the transaction type and property address, a set of compliance rulescan be identified and subsequently, the identified compliance rules canbe used to identify documents for including in the document package forthe transaction. For example, at least a portion of the documentsassociated with the city, county, or state in which the property islocated can be used to generate the document package. Further,properties located in a particular location may be part of a homeowner'sassociation and the rules of the homeowner's association will apply tothe property in the transaction. The document package can beautomatically generated based on the received data values or selected bya user. Additionally, the document package can be generated based on acombination of automatic generation and user selected generation. At anypoint prior to providing the document package to the other party,documents can be removed or added to the package.

Once identified, the documents in the package can be auto-populated(block 85). Specifically, form elements within the documents arepopulated (block 85) with data values from the cover sheet based on thedata field identifiers associated with the form elements. Any formelements in the documents not automatically populated can be filled inby the user. For automatic population, data values from the coversheet,which can be stored in a database with field identifiers, are used asreference sources for populating the form elements of the documents withdata field values. Other reference sources for populating the formelements are possible, such as other documents, as discussed in detailbelow with respect to FIG. 9 . The documents can be populated onceidentified and if further documents are later added to the package,auto-population can occur once the document has been added.Auto-population is also used when data values are changed. For example,if the price of the property changes in one form element, the new priceis entered in the data model and will be used to replace the old pricein the other documents in the package.

Additional information can be stored with the populated form elementvalues or in additional storage accessible using case and fieldidentifiers. The additional information can include date and time thedata was last changed, provenance information about who entered the dataor where the data originated, and links to related information, such asconfirmation information that logs whether a stakeholder has confirmedreceipt and acknowledgement of the data values.

During or after data population, review logic, such as completenesslogic (block 86), consistency logic (block 87), correctness logic (block88), compliance logic (block 89), and confirmation logic (block 90) canbe applied to the document package to ensure a validity of the datavalues. In one example, the review logic is applied in real time as thedata values are being entered in the form elements, either viaauto-population or via the user. Additionally, the review logic can beapplied at a later time, such as all the required data is entered in thedocuments. For instance, for related form elements, checking cannotoccur until multiple fields are entered, either in the same document oracross different documents.

The review logic can be applied separately or simultaneously. Once thedocuments in a package have been checked for compliance, consistency,correctness and completeness, any identified errors or inconsistenciescan be automatically corrected or a notification can be provided to theuser to correct the error. Once the document package satisfies allchecks for completeness, consistency, correctness, compliance, andconfirmation, the document package can be provided (block 91) to theother party to the transaction.

However, prior to providing the document package to the other party orafter providing the package, updates (block 92) to one or more of theform elements may be required. For example, the other party receivingthe document package may want to change a term or form element value inone or more of the documents. Alternatively, one or more terms of thetransaction may change, such as based on an outcome of the propertyinspection or by mutual agreement. Additionally, regulations regardingthe transaction can change and must be reflected in the documentpackage. All such changes must be reflected in the transactiondocuments.

A change to a value populating a form element in a document could, forexample, occur via a user interaction when the document is stored in thecompliance system or by a fresh upload of a copy of the document. Everychange to a data field value is logged and time-stamped. Whenever a newvalue of the form element becomes available to the compliance system,the system updates the data value in the caching database. Additionally,whenever a new copy of the reference document is made available to thesystem, the system synchronizes the data so that the most recentlyupdated value is reflected in the database for populating form elements.Other implementations for storing the data field values are possible. Ineach variation, consistency rules assure that when a change to areferenced data field value for a document package becomes known, thenew data value is propagated to derivative form elements across thedocuments in the document package. To maintain transparency andconsistency, the compliance system keeps a log showing the dates andtimes of any change, and indicates where reconfirmation is required ofany stakeholder's acknowledgement of a value. The log can be used toverify and confirm certain changes, as well as track the user that madethe change should a dispute regarding the property arise.

If any updates (block 92) to a data field value are necessary, one ormore data field values are changed (block 93) and propagated across thedocuments in the package. Additionally, a change can be made to a formelement and that change is updated to reflect across all documenttemplates in a document package that include that form element.Subsequently, the review logic, including completeness logic (block 86),consistency logic (block 87), correctness logic (block 88), compliancelogic (block 89), and confirmation logic (block 90) is applied to theupdates. Otherwise, if no updates are required, the document package isconsidered to be successfully complete and can be provided to the otherparty.

Process and Document Transformations

The document transformation and compliance system helps reduce theamount of time required for preparing documents for a real estatetransactions, such as a sale or purchase of property, and increasesconfidence that the documents are accurately prepared. Generally, duringa property sale and purchase transaction, a potential purchaser reviewsmultiple properties, which have been listed for sale. Each listedproperty requires a listing agreement, which includes large amounts ofinformation that must be correctly listed for the property and complywith jurisdictional regulations.

Eventually, the potential purchaser identifies an available property forsale and generates an offer for sending to the seller of the listedproperty selected. Generating the offer can be tedious and timeconsuming based on the information that must be provided and disclosed.Once the offer is accepted, all paper work for the transaction must becompleted before closing. Such paper work includes documents relevant tothe particular property and transaction, and can include proof of titlesearch, insurance, flood certification, proof of homeowner's insuranceand mortgage insurance, home appraisal, inspection reports, and closingdisclosure, among other documents, such as carbon monoxide detectornotice, new construction addendum, vacant land listing agreement, andwater heater statement of compliance. Other types of documents arepossible.

Users can utilize the document transformation and compliance system toprepare the listing, offer, and related documents. Such documents areprepared using information received from a user, such as via aquestionnaire or cover sheet. FIG. 8 is a diagram of an interactive form100 showing, by way of example, a transaction cover sheet 102 with formelements for obtaining data values. The interactive form 100 can includea navigation bar for an index 101 of pages for the transaction and adisplay of the cover sheet 102. The index 101 can include content linksfor the cover sheet 102, including a document link, proof of funds link,signed disclosures link, prequalification link, purchase services link,and marketing services link. The purchase services are described incommonly-owned U.S. Patent Application, titled “System and Method forPurchase Document Transformation and Compliance,” filed on Sep. 4, 2019,the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. However,other index links are possible, including listing service links, whichcan be utilized by a selling party to the transaction, as described incommonly-owned U.S. Patent Application, titled “System and Method forListing Document Transformation and Compliance,” filed on Sep. 4, 2019,and U.S. Patent Application, titled “Blockchain-Based System and Methodfor Listing Document Transformation and Accountability,” filed on Sep.4, 2019, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

The cover sheet 102 can include multiple form elements, which are usedto generate a data model for the transaction. The data fields of thecover sheet can include fields for at least one broker or agent name103, at least one party name 104, contract and market dates 105, andproperty information 106, including property identification number,street address, city, state and zip code, and purchase price (notshown). Further, data specific to a buyer can be requested via the coversheet, as further described below with respect to FIG. 18 . Other typesof form elements are possible. A user, such as an agent, broker orstakeholder, can populate the form elements of the cover sheet 102 withdata field values that are used for generating a data model to identifya document package and perform compliance checking. Once the cover sheethas been completed, a check mark or other symbol or color can be used toprovide a status of the cover sheet in the index 101, which in thiscase, is complete.

In one embodiment, one or more compliance checks can be applied via thereview logic as the data values are entered into the cover sheet. Forexample, correctness logic can be used to check data values entered intothe form elements of the cover sheet. Specifically, the data values canbe checked to prevent propagation of incorrect information in the otherdocuments of the document package. For example, a real estate agent iscompleting the cover sheet for his client, the seller, and fills out theseller's email address as adam.able.gmail.com. The correctness logicidentifies that the email address is invalid due to lacking theconventional syntax character “@” to separate the name of the emailholder from the name of the email service and marks the incorrect datavalue as an error. The error can be provided as a pop-up message or byhighlighting the incorrect data value, and can be removed uponcorrection of the data value. Other displays of the error notificationare possible.

The correctness logic can also connect to authoritative sources toretrieve authoritative information for checking the data values. Forexample, the property for sale is located at 1120 Rose Avenue, MountainView, Calif. 94040. As the real estate agent types in the address “1120Rose,” an authoritative source, such as a multiple listing servicedatabase, is accessed to obtain and display valid property addressesmatching the partial address entered. The real estate agent can thenselect the property address representing the property for sale by AdamAble. Consistency and compliance logic can also be applied to the datavalues entered in the cover sheet.

Data Models and Process Logic

Once obtained and checked, the data values of the cover sheet are usedto generate a data model. FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing, by way ofexample, parts of data models 107 for different transactions. Each datamodel can include data field identifiers 108 and data field values 109.In this example, the data field identifiers are associated with a formelement in the cover sheet and documents in the library. The data fieldvalues are used to populate all form elements with the correspondingdata field identifier. The same data field identifiers can be usedacross documents, as well as transactions; however, the data fieldvalues differ for each transaction.

Returning to the above example regarding seller, Adam Able, the sellername is split into two fields with the field for first name associatedwith a field identifier “seller.first.name” and the field for last nameassociated with the identifier “seller.last.name.” The received datavalues of Adam for first name and Able for second name are stored withthe associated identifiers in a data model having an extensible set ofdata field identifiers for accessing and displaying informationpopulating the documents. All the received data values in the coversheet and document templates for the property transaction can be storedtogether as the data model.

Once generated, one or more data values from the data model can be usedto identify rules for a particular transaction and the identified rulescan then be used to select documents for a document package for thetransaction. However, prior to generating a document package, the datavalues from the data model can be used to populate a disclosure documentoutlining a relationship between a real estate agency and a seller orbuyer. The template for the disclosure document can include interactivefields for ensuring acknowledgement by the seller or buyer, andsignature, date, and license fields.

Once the relationship between the real estate agent and buyer or sellerhas been established, documents can be selected from a document templatelibrary for inclusion in the document package. FIG. 10 is a diagramshowing, by way of example, a part of a document template library 61.The library 61 provides a listing of document templates 70 that arenecessary for meeting compliance regulations and practices for differentjurisdictions. Each document template 70 can be stored with information,including template name 71, a date of last revision 72, whether thedocument appears in a listing 73 of documents relevant to the listingagent and seller, whether the document appears in an offer 74 for theproperty, last publication date 75, last edit date 76, locale type 77,and assigned locale 78. The assigned locale 78 can list the jurisdictionwhich requires the document, while the locale type 77 provides aclassification for the type of jurisdiction, including city, county, orstate, as well as other types of jurisdictions. In one example, eachdocument template 70 can be accessed by clicking on the template name.Further document templates 70 can be added using an “add documenttemplate” button 79.

To generate a document package for a transaction, one or more datavalues received via the cover sheet, such as the property address, canbe used to identify a set of rules for the transaction. Subsequently,based on the identified rule set, one or more documents can be selectedfrom the library to form the document package. The transaction can beassigned a unique transaction identifier, which can then be used touniquely identify the document package. For example, the transactionidentifier can be a unique number or string, or could be generated as astring that includes some human-interpretable information, such as thereal estate agent's name, seller's name, and a date together with anumber.

As more data values are provided for the form elements, additionaldocuments may be identified as required for the transaction.Accordingly, templates for those documents are instantiated and some ofthe field values can be filled in where they have already beenestablished. In this way, the document package grows incrementally andautomatically as needed.

In one embodiment, a listing of document templates can be presented andan agent can select one or more documents to add to the documentpackage, as needed. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing by way of example, aninteractive form 110 for identifying document templates for atransaction. The interactive form 110 includes a navigation bar for anindex of pages 101 and a documents section 111. The documents section111 provides one or more property type selections 112, a search bar 113,and a listing 114 of document templates 115. The property typeselections 112 can be identified and presented based on the addressentered in the cover sheet and a type of transaction, such as a sellingor buying transaction. Specifically, the address can be used to identifyjurisdictional organizations that cover the location of the property,while the transaction type is used to identify listing or purchasedocuments. For example, a property located in Mountain View, Calif. mustcomply with real estate regulations enacted by the state of California,as well as any local regulations. To purchase the property located inthe Mountain View for sale, document templates for offer documents thatcomply with real estate regulations in one or more of California orlocally are identified and presented. An offer agreement provides anoffer price, includes proof of funds, for the offer price, an expectedclosing date, and how additional costs will be covered, along withexpectations of the seller up until closing, which can requireadditional forms. However, different offer agreements drafted bydifferent organizations can include different conditions based onlocation, property type, and preference of that organization. Forexample, a professional organization in California includes, by default,a clause in the offer agreement that requires a property to be deliveredto a buyer in operational order, while the offer agreement drafted by adifferent professional organization does not require, by default, theseller to make any repairs.

The property type selections for the Mountain View property can includea manufactured home, residential home or vacant land, or a residentialhome however, other property type selections are possible. Thus,document templates for offer agreements for each of the property typesthat conform with California and local regulations are identified anddisplayed. The user, such as a real estate agent or broker, can chooseone or more of the transaction type selections 112 for generating adocument package for the transaction. For example, if the property is aresidential home, the user can select residential documents associatedwith the selected property types are displayed or selected for displayin the document template list 114 in the document section 111. In oneembodiment, all the documents associated with the selected propertytypes can be selected for display and inclusion in the document package.Alternatively, all the documents associated with the selected propertytypes can be displayed and a user can select certain documents forinclusion in the document package. For example, a buyer may wish toplace an offer on a residential property “as is,” which requires anadditional document to accompany the offer.

Further, the document section 111 includes a search bar 113, which canbe used to identify additional document templates for adding to thedocument package. An agent may use the search bar if he or she hasinformation about the property or transaction that is not evident yetfrom the information that has been entered in the active documents. Inthis way, the agent can add relevant documents to the package. Forinstance, the residential Mountain View property may have waterconserving plumbing fixtures, which require an additional document fordisclosure or is offered for sale as a short sale, which also requiresadditional documents. Accordingly, based on those special circumstances,the document templates are accessed via the search bar 113 and added tothe document package. Further, the interactive form 110 can include agenerate documents button 116, which allows a user to view the documenttemplates selected for inclusion in the document package.

Based on the document template selections in the document page 111, apackage of documents is generated for the transaction and displayed tothe user. FIG. 12 is a diagram showing, by way of example, aninteractive form 120 displaying document templates for possibleinclusion in a document package 121 for an offer agreement. The web page120 provides a listing of documents 122 for a listing agreement, forexample, that can be included in the document package 121 for theproperty transaction upon confirmation of the transaction. In oneembodiment, the documents templates can be displayed as thumbnailimages, and selected for review and revision. Each thumbnailrepresentation of the active documents can include a title of thedocument and a menu, which allows the user to edit or obtain additionalinformation about that document. Each of the documents in the packagecan be auto-populated with the data values entered in the cover sheetprior to display or upon display. Further, users can upload externaldocuments via an add document button 123 on the interactive form 120.For example, homeowner association guidelines and papers may not beeasily available to individuals that do not belong to the homeownerassociation and thus, can be uploaded.

Additionally, if necessary, adding additional documents to the packageis possible using a search tool provided on the page. FIG. 13 is adiagram showing, by way of example, a page 200 for searching fordocuments to add to a document package from a document template library.The page 200 includes a search field 201 that allows a user to conduct asearch for one or more documents in the document library. The searchfield 201 can be displayed on the page 200 or accessed via a menu orright click on the page 200. A user can enter a name of the document tobe added in the search field 201 and as the user types, documents withrelated titles or that includes the typed characters in the search field201 can be displayed, such as in a drop-down menu 202. Allowing a user,including an agent or broker, to access documents is beneficial toaccommodate many variations in circumstances for real estatetransactions. For example, the additional documents can includedocuments to cover seller responsibilities, inspections, pest control,military ordinance disclosure, lead paint, and methamphetamine control,and temporary occupancy of the property by the buyer prior to closing.Documents covering other situations are possible. The number ofadditional documents can be identified for display based on theorganization that prepared the listing agreement selected for use by theuser. Once the user identifies a document for adding to the documentpackage, the user can select the add button 203 to add the document tothe package. Alternatively, documents can be selected automatically foraddition to the document package based on data fields filled in otherdocuments and the data values included in the data model. Once added,the fields can be auto-populated using the data model.

During auto-population, the population logic processes the documentsselected for the package by reviewing the form elements, looking up datafield identifiers for the data fields in the data model, and populatingthe form elements with the data values in the data model that correspondwith the data field identifiers. The user can select a thumbnail foreach document and review the documents with the populated data values.If any form element remains unpopulated, the user can enter a datavalue, which is saved with a data field identifier associated with theunpopulated form element and stored in the data model. Other documentsin the package that include a form element associated with the datafield identifier can be populated with the corresponding data value.

In different embodiments, different methods for looking up the datafield values to populate the documents are possible, depending onwhether the data field values are stored in a reference database, in areference document, or in a combination of both. In one example, thedata field values for a document package are stored in both a databaseand a reference document as a value for a corresponding form element.The reference document data field or source includes the data value ofrecord and the database functions as a cache for that value. The cacheis used to simplify accelerated data field access for populating otherdocuments. In a different example, the data values can be stored in thedata fields of a reference document in the package and any changes tothe data values can be made to the respective form elements in the otherdocuments. In a further example, the data values are stored in adatabase and accessed upon display of the documents in the package. Forinstance, when a change is made to a data value, the value is changed inthe database and the next time the documents in the package aredisplayed, the fields are populated with the updated values stored inthe database just prior to display.

At the same time or after auto-population of the documents, compliancelogic can be performed to ensure the completeness, correctness,consistency, and compliance of the documents. Completeness logic helpsensure that all required documents are included in the document packagefor the transaction and that all required fields for each document arefilled in. Rules regarding each form element are associated with thefield definitions and based on the information provided by the fielddefinition, a determination can be made that the associated form elementremains blank. For example, a signature field must be signed prior tofinalizing the document package for providing to the other party. If nosignature has been entered, confirmation or completeness logic canidentify the field and send a notification to at least one user, such asthe real estate agent or client.

In one embodiment, completeness logic can be used to create statusindicators that indicate unfinished elements, such as empty formelements within one or more documents. For example, the statusindicators can indicate that some fields in a required document have notyet been filled in. The indicators can appear as a pop-up message orother type of notification while the user is working on the document inwhich a completeness error is identified, when the user leaves thedocument with the completeness error, or during checking of the documentpackage. Ensuring that a document package is complete by including allnecessary documents for a transaction and that all form elements withinthe documents of the package are filled in helps limit interactions withparties to or stakeholders of a transaction before information in thedocument package is complete. For instance, the system can prevent adocument package from being sent to another party to the transaction forsignatures before required information is filled in, which can preventmultiple rounds of back and forth communication between the parties tofix the error and result in completing the transaction in less time.

Completeness logic can also be used to identify form elements to beadded to a document depending on data values that are filled in forother form elements in documents included in the package. FIG. 14A is adiagram of an interactive form showing, by way of example, a portion ofthe cover sheet 170 of FIG. 8 . The cover sheet 170 can include formelements for identifying a county 171 in which a property is located andthe type of ownership 172 of the property, including individual, trust,and entity. In this example, the property is owned by an individual andthe individual's name, which can be provided under the seller's nameform element as described above with reference to FIG. 8 , can be usedto populate form elements associated with identifiers for the owner'sname or identity.

However, additional information may be required based on a data valueentered by a user. For example, if information is added indicating thata property has a swimming pool, additional forms may be required. Thecompleteness logic can be performed to request the additionalinformation. FIG. 14B is a diagram of an interactive form showing, byway of example, the portion of the cover sheet 180 of FIG. 14A with adifferent data value. The cover sheet 180 can include form elements foridentifying a county 181 in which a property is located and the type ofownership 182 of the property, including individual, trust, and entity.In this example, a trust 183 owns the property, which is the subject ofthe transaction. However, additional information about the trust isnecessary to complete the documents in the package because the previousform elements did not include a request for information about the trust.The completeness logic identifies the trust selection 183 and displaysan additional field 184 for a name of the trust.

Prior to, during, or after application of the completeness logic,consistency logic can be performed to ensure that related form elementsin the documents in a document package are filled in in asemantically-consistent manner. FIG. 15 is a diagram of a documenttemplate 190 with form elements 191, 192 for property price. Thedocument 190 includes form elements for two different representations191, 192 of the offered sales price for a property. In one field 191,the price data value 191 should be spelled out in words, as is commonpractice for paper bank checks. The other form element 192 requires theprice to be entered with a currency indicator, such as a dollar signfollowed by a number. The consistency logic for checking syntax canrefer to the data field indicator “Prop. Sales.Price.Num,” which isassociated with the form element 192 for sales price number and the datafield identifier “Prop.Sales.Price.Str” for the sales price string ofwords. Based on the similarity of the identifiers, including the commonportion “Prop.Sales.Price,” the data value of the spelled-out fieldcould be checked for consistency against the numeric sales price via theconsistency logic.

In a further embodiment, the consistency logic together with a dataentry system could derive a string representation of the sales priceconsistently and automatically after the numeric representation of theprice is entered. The consistency logic can also identify and input thenumeric representation of the sales price after a string representationof the sales price. Other form elements that can benefit from aconsistency check include ensuring that the property address in numbersmatches with a spelled-out version of the property number.

In addition to performing consistency logic on the document package,correctness logic can also be performed to ensure that data valuespopulating the form element are verified by authoritative sources.Specifically, the correctness logic can identify invalid data values andprovide suggestions for data values via an authoritative source, asdescribed above with respect to FIGS. 8, 14A, and 14B. For instance, thecorrectness logic can identify invalid email addresses, such as thosewithout the ampersand symbol or a domain. Additionally, the correctnesslogic can connect to a multiple listing service or regional databasethat stores addresses and utilize those addresses to provide suggestionsfor partial data values entered by a user for an address. Other examplesof form elements on which the correctness logic can be applied includezip code and state, and street address and city, as well as many otherform elements. The correctness that a particular zip code is locatedwithin a particular state can be verified by a mapping database orproperty records database.

Also, the data values can be checked using compliance logic, which helpsensure that the documents in the package comply with all regulatoryrequirements. The compliance logic can access and use one or moreauthoritative sources to look up a required set of documents based onthe address of the property being sold. In one example, the regulatoryinformation is entered into the compliance system by real estate subjectmatter experts using a Transaction Coordinator Platform. The humanexperts consult appropriate governmental and other sources, createdocument templates, and assign the templates to the proper geographicregion. The document templates can be generated from documents preparedby different organizations, such as regional real estate associationsand groups. Additionally, online government sources can be used toobtain information.

Finally, confirmation logic can be applied to the document package priorto sending the completed document package to the other party. Theconfirmation logic ensures that all of the required signing and datingof the documents are completed. A notification can be provided to theuser to identify any blank fields that should have a signature or date.The notification can be provided by a pop-up notification or byhighlighting the blank field. Once the document package has beenpopulated and checked, and no errors exist, the package can be providedto the other party.

Purchase-Specific Compliance

Buying agents represent buyers and are required to prepare documents,which belong to a document package for a property transaction, includingan agreement between the agent and client, as well as documentsoutlining the property transfer. For example, buying agents must preparean agreement outlining the relationship between that agent and hisclient. Each buying agent is also responsible for preparing propertypurchase offers and if necessary, counter offers. The compliance systemcompiles the documents from each of the selling and listing agents asthe document package for the transaction based on information providedby the agents. In one embodiment, different parts of the documentpackage are provided to different stakeholders, such as the propertyseller, purchase, records office, or real estate agency, as well asother stakeholders. FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing, by way ofexample, the compliance system 15 of FIG. 2 with purchase services 210.As described above with respect to FIG. 2 , the compliance system 15includes the compliance information management system 16, the complianceperformance system 17, and the compliance outreach system 18. At thelevel of the compliance information management system 16, real estatesubject matter experts 14 and information technology specialists 30provide information and logic representations 212 that are encoded andsaved for performing automatic document population and compliancechecking of the populated documents for a real estate transaction. Alsoat the compliance level, document templates and data for listingservices 211, which is described in U.S. Patent Application, titled“System and Method for Purchase Document Transformation and Compliance,”filed Sep. 4, 2019, which is hereby incorporated by reference, andpurchase services 210 can be entered by the real estate subject matterexperts 14 and information technology specialists 30. The purchasingservices document templates and data 210 can include vendor data,recommendation logic for identifying particular vendors, and schedulinglogic for vendors for performing inspections of a property for sale, aswell as other types of templates and data.

Once the document templates, data, and logic have been entered by thereal estate subject matter experts and information technologyspecialists 30, the compliance performance system 17, as described abovewith respect to FIG. 2 , identifies and populates documents for aproperty transaction. Specifically, users, such as brokers, agents, andstakeholders to the property transaction provide data regarding thetransaction for populating at least a portion of the documents using theinformation and logic representations from the information managementsystem 16. Once populated, compliance logic from the informationmanagement level 16 is applied to the documents to check forcorrectness, completeness, consistency, and compliance of the data andthe documents, using the information gathered by the complianceinformation management system and the compliance outreach system. Priorto or during the compliance checking, the compliance outreach system 18performs interactions with third party systems and parties to obtainadditional information against which the populated documents of thetransaction documents are checked. For instance, the outreach system 18can contact one or more inspectors on behalf of the buyer to perform aninspection of the property on which the offer can be based.

Purchase Services for Property Buyers

Information about the different vendors are entered and stored as asubsystem within the information management system 16. FIG. 17 is asystem diagram of the information management system 16 of FIG. 3 withpurchase services. The information management system 16 includestransaction documents and compliance data and logic 212, which aredescribed above with respect to FIG. 3 , listing services 211, which aredescribed in commonly-owned U.S. Patent Application, titled “System andMethod for Purchase Document Transformation and Compliance,” filed Sep.4, 2019, which is hereby incorporated by reference, purchase services210, and scheduling services 220. As described above, the transactiondocuments and compliance data and logic 212 are entered and stored forperforming document population and compliance checking of the populateddocuments for a real estate transaction. The purchase services 210includes vendor data 222, vendor recommendation logic 223, and scheduledservices data 221. Successful buying agents often help their buyerclients by providing customized services, such as recommending andarranging inspection services and warranties. For instance, in an offerfor the property, the buyer client may have indicated a desire forparticular inspections, such as a home inspection. However, other typesof inspections are possible. The purchase services 210 includesdocuments and data that are used to provide vendor recommendations to abuyer client for one or more purchase services using vendorrecommendation logic 223 and vendor data 222. The data stored can foreach vendor or service provider can include vendor name, contactinformation, prices, reviews, services offered, and areas in whichservice is provided, as well as other types of information.

When a purchase service is requested manually, such as by entering arequest for services, or is based on populated data values in one ormore documents in the document package, the request is entered into thescheduling services system 220 along with scheduled services data 221.The scheduling services data 221 can include vendor availability, aswell as the availability of the buyer client. The scheduling servicessystem 220 includes a calendar with entries for transaction events,listing services, marketing services, purchase services, and other typesof events, and is used to keep track of timing dependencies and theproperty sale timeline for transfer of the property.

Prior to providing and recommending purchase services, a buying agentassists buyer clients in looking for a property for purchase. Toidentify properties of interest for the buyer client, the agent collectsinitial transaction information via a cover sheet, as described indetail above with respect to FIG. 8 . FIG. 18 is a diagram of aninteractive form 230 showing, by way of example, a different embodimentof the cover sheet 231 of FIG. 8 . The interactive form 230 can includea navigation bar for an index 232 of interactive forms for the propertytransaction and a display of the cover sheet 231. Specifically, theindex can include the cover sheet for obtaining data regarding the buyerclient, a listing of documents selected for inclusion in a documentpackage for the purchase of the property, a proof of funds for purchaseof the property, signed disclosures, a pre-qualification for loans,purchase services for providing vendor recommendations and warranties,and marketing services.

The cover sheet 231 can include fields for the buying agent and buyerinformation, such as first and last names, email address, phone numbers,current residential address, and status of ownership of the property atthe current residential address. In one embodiment, the cover sheet caninclude different data fields based on a situation of the buyer clientand information provided by the client. For example, buyer clients oftenform a relationship with a buying agent prior to identifying a house forpurchase and if so, the cover sheet does not include or does not receivedata regarding an identity of the property for purchase. However, if aproperty for purchase is identified, the cover sheet can be morecomprehensive and information for the property can be entered into thecover letter. For example, FIG. 19 is an interactive form 240 showing,by way of example, a comprehensive cover sheet 241. The comprehensivecover sheet 241 can be used when a buyer client has already identified aproperty on which to place an offer and includes more data fields than acover sheet for a buyer client that has not yet identified a property.For instance, the comprehensive cover sheet 241 can include data fields242 for identifying the property for purchase, including MLSidentification, MLS number, APN number, and address. Additionally, thecoversheet 241 can include information about the buying agent, such ascontact information, license number, and real estate agency, andinformation about the purchaser, such as name and contact information.Other data fields are possible.

The data collected via the cover sheet can be used to generate a datamodel for the property transaction, as described above in detail withrespect to FIG. 9 . The data model collects and records data during thetransaction process and utilizes the data to populate an agencydisclosure assignment formalizing the agent/client relationship, assearch parameters for identifying potential properties for purchase, andfor populating documents for purchase of the property. Additionally,information about the property or the buyer client collected afterpopulation of the cover sheet can be added to the agency disclosureassignment and purchase documents using the system logic, such asconsistency and completeness.

Once the buying agent and buyer client relationship has been formalized,the buying agent can identify and show the buyer client differentproperties of interest. The buying agent can utilize a web-basedinformation source, MLS service, or other types of sources to search forproperties using parameters, such as location, price, size, and propertytype, as well as other types of search parameters. An MLS serviceprovides information to agents about properties that are coming up forsale.

A search for properties is conducted based on one or more parametersentered by the buying agent and results can be displayed. However, if noproperties are identified that fit the search parameters, nearby orclose alternatives that do not precisely match the parameters, but whichare closely related can be suggested. The buying agent can obtaininformation about one or more of the properties by clicking on a link,picture, or listing of that property in the result list.

The purchase services described in detail above with respect to FIGS. 16and 17 can allow the buying agent to deliver search results and otherdocuments to the buyer client, including online or printed brochures toprevent the buyer client from becoming confused after viewing multipleproperties. Additionally, a log of properties suggested by the buyingagent and viewed by the buyer client can be generated. Ideally, a buyingagent should show or describe all properties on the market that areavailable and meet the buyer client's interest to satisfy legalrequirements regarding housing discrimination and increase the buyerclient's satisfaction with the buying agent. The log helps the buyerclient from confusing the different properties for consideration, butalso maintains a record of the properties for the buying agent.Accordingly, should issues later arise where a buyer client questionswhether they were made aware of a particular property, the log providesevidence that the property was recommended and possibly visited.

Transforming the Purchase Agreement and Document Package Dynamically

After the buyer client has selected a property of interest for placingan offer, an offer may be generated. The elements of an offer ofteninclude terms and conditions, a target date for closing, earnest moneydeposit or a promissory note, method for adjusting real estate taxes,rents, utilities, provisions for paying title insurance, survey, andtermite inspections, among other elements. FIG. 20 is a diagram of aninteractive form 250 for generating an offer or a counter offer. Theinteractive form 250 can include a navigation bar for an index 251 ofpages for generating documents, such as the offer, for the propertytransaction. Under the document selection in the index, a user, such asa the buying agent or buyer client, can select 252 a template for a setof purchase documents, such as an offer, for inclusion in a documentpackage for the property transfer, as described in detail above withrespect to FIG. 11 . The different templates for the purchase agreementdocuments can be based on one or more of a type of property forpurchase, a location of the property for purchase, and a professionalorganization that created the templates. A buying agent is generallyresponsible for advising buyer clients on the different types ofpurchase agreement documents that best meet the clients' interests.Different agreements can take different approaches to establishingresponsibilities, risks, and liabilities for buyers.

In addition to the purchase agreements, one or more additional forms ordocuments may be needed for inclusion with the purchase agreement. Theadditional forms can include contingencies for the sale of a propertyowned by the buyer, a remove of such contingency, notification aboutpropane tanks, requirements for increased deposits, historicaldisclosures, common interest developments, visual inspections,appraisals and waivers of appraisal contingencies, fireplacedisclosures, bedbug disclosures, time extensions, earthquake hazards,buyer inspections, lead based paint disclosures, market conditionadvisories, square foot advisories, compliance of water heaters, andparking and storage disclosures, as well as other types of forms anddocuments. As a property transaction progresses, information may beuncovered during inspections and disclosed to buyers and sellers.Accordingly, the document package changes over time as more data isobtained and further documents are generated. The user can conduct 253 asearch for specific documents to add to the offer or counter-offer inthe document package via a document search tool 253 and select 254 oneor more specific documents, such as results of a document search, forinclusion in the document package, which are displayed in a documentlisting 254. A generate document button 256 can be used to generatedocuments for inclusion in a document package, such as by filling inform elements in the templates. Presuming that this button is used by abuyer's buying agent, it would generate an offer document to bepresented to the seller and listing agent.

The documents, once selected, can be automatically populated with datacollected via the cover sheet and included in the data model, as well asby additional data collected in one or more other documents in thedocument package depending on the data available when the document isselected for inclusion in the package. Finally, once all the documentsand information are selected and completed, a generate offer button 255can be selected for gathering all the documents as the offer.

Additional documents can also be uploaded by the user. FIG. 21 is adiagram of an interactive form 260 for uploading documents. Theinteractive form 260 includes a navigation bar for an index 261 of pagesfor generating documents, such as the offer, for the propertytransaction, and a document upload section 261. The document uploadsection 261 can include a document upload box 263, a list of uploadeddocuments 264 and links 265 in the list to access the documents. Thedocuments uploaded by a user include supporting documentation for anoffer, such as a cover letter, proof of financing, loan prequalificationdocument, description of contingencies, proposed dates and payment forinspections and information gathering to resolve risk issues. Forexample, a buyer client may wish to write a cover letter to the owner ofa property for sale explaining why the client wants to purchase theproperty. The cover letter can be included with the offer documents.FIG. 22 is a diagram showing, by way of example, a cover letter 270. Thecover letter 270 can include a name of the seller or sellers, a messagefrom the buyer client, and the buyer client's name.

Other content for inclusion in the message is possible.

The user can upload documents by dragging and dropping such documents. Achecklist of the documents for inclusion in the property transferdocuments, such as the offer, can be generated and maintained. Once oneor more documents in the checklist have been uploaded, the checklist canbe updated to reflect receipt of the documents. Further, notificationsfor one or more documents can be generated if not received or maintainedby the system.

Compliance and Offer Generation

Other types of documents to be added to a package can include inspectionelections of the buyer. During the property transfer process, the buyingagent should recommend investigation of the property for any risks.Accordingly, an inspection advisory document can be generated forinclusion with the purchase offer, added to the document package, andsigned by the buyer client. The inspection advisory document indicatesthat expert reports can be requested, outsourced, and produced, inaddition to any advice from the buying agent regarding any risksassociated with the property. FIG. 23 is an interactive form 280 fordisplaying a document for buyer inspection elections. The interactiveform 280 provides a document for buyer inspection elections 281 and asignature box 282. One or more inspections can be selected by the buyerclient, such as by clicking on a “yes” box. The election of aninspection triggers automatic inclusion of additional forms forrecommending or ordering inspections and for providing reports on theresults via the compliance logic. For example, if the buyer clientselection a lead pain inspection, then a lead based paint disclosureform can be added to the document package along with other forms. Thelead-based paint disclosure form can require disclosure of informationfrom the seller and authorization to allow the buyer to have a leadpaint inspection performed. Subsequently, the buyer client can enter hissignature via the signature data field 282. The document for theinspection elections can be added to the document package for theproperty.

Once all the documents have been added to the package for an offer on aproperty for sale, a generate offer button can be selected by the user.The generate offer button can be on all the pages in the index so that auser can generate an offer at any time. After the offer has beengenerated, the user can send the document package for the offer to thelisting agent of the seller.

Once an offer has been accepted by the seller, the buyer client canarrange inspections, such as those which were identified in the offer.For every inspection that is ordered on the property, a home inspectionform can be created for use by the buyer client to schedule aninspection. FIG. 24 is a diagram showing, by way of example, aninteractive form 290 for generating an inspection request. Theinteractive form 290 can include a navigation bar for an index 291 ofpages for generating documents, such as the offer, for the propertytransaction, and an inspection request form listing 292. The inspectionrequest form 292 can include a request identifier 293, which indicateswhether the inspection associated with the form, such as a homeinspection, has been requested by the user, and a name of the form 294to be filled out. The user can manually enter data in the form by typinganswers or can elect to use the autofill feature 295, which populatesthe inspection form 292 with data already maintained by the system. Theinspection form 292 can include data fields for vendor 296, propertytype 298, property access information 299, including property occupancy300, individual providing access to the property 301, notification andcode for any lockbox 302, and any gate code 303. To select a particularvendor for performing the inspection, a user can select a new vendorbutton 297 and search through a list of vendors for the inspectionservice desired. The list of vendors available for selection can becreated by the real estate agent's team or brokerage. Alternatively, theinformation technology specialists or real estate experts can enter thelist of vendors. Once the user is ready to submit the request, the usercan select the submit request button 304.

Once a date and time is selected for conducting the inspection, theappointment can be entered into a calendar and scheduling systemmaintained by the system for the property transaction. In oneembodiment, each property transaction is associated with a calendar oftasks and appointments for that transaction. The calendar can be used toreview the tasks and identify one or more of a dependency between two ormore of the tasks, a timing conflict for performing two or more of thetasks, and an interaction between two or more of the tasks. Further,notification reminders of the inspection appointments can be generatedand sent to the users, such as buying agent and buyer client. Thenotification reminder can include a task, along with notice that adeadline for completion of the task is approaching; an assignment of thetask; or a re-assignment of the task. A dashboard showing the status ofactivities can also be provided.

The inspection request form listing 292 can also include bars 305 forother types of inspections with a status bar indicating whether thatparticular service was requested 293, which allows the user to easilyidentify which inspection services have been requested. A user canselect a drop-down arrow 306 to view and or fill the data fields forthat inspection. Additionally, the user can add a request for inspectionusing a drop-down arrow 307 if there is no listing for the particularinspection desired.

The inspection request can also include other data fields or additionalinformation can be obtained from the user after the inspection requesthas been made. FIG. 25 is a diagram showing, by way of example, aninteractive form 310 showing additional data fields for the inspectionrequest of FIG. 24 . The interactive form 310 can include a furtherrequest form with data fields for scheduling the inspection after theinitial request form has been submitted or can include data fields forinclusion with the inspection request of FIG. 24 . The data fields caninclude scheduling information 315, such as a deadline 316 for theinspection to occur, a preferred day 317 or days of the week, preferredtime periods 318 during which the inspection would occur, and a listingof day and time preferences 320. In one example, each day and time canbe saved as a preference using a save button 319. Finally, anyadditional information 321 to be provided to the inspection vendorregarding the inspection request can be included.

Buying agents, as part of their services, also assist a buyer clientwith preparing a home warranty. FIG. 26 is a diagram showing, by way ofexample, an interactive form 330 for generating a home warranty. Thehome warranty can cover the repair or replacement of importantcomponents of the property for purchase, including appliances and systemcomponents, such as heating ducts and plumbing. Sometimes the propertyseller includes a protection plan for the buyer, which can provide peaceof mind for both the buyer and the seller. Alternatively, a plan canalso be offered by the buying agent. Most protection plans coverelectrical systems, water heater, furnace, air conditioning, heatingducts, water pump, kitchen appliances, refrigerator, washer and dryer,and plumbing, but maybe not sewer lines. Also, most protection plans donot cover swimming pools, spas, Jacuzzis, or hot tubs. Further, thefoundation and roof of the property are usually not covered.

Generally, home warranties are beneficial for the buyer to coverappliances and components of the property that are not covered by theprotection plan. The interactive form 330 for the home warranty documentcan include a name of the document 331 and a status of the document 332.The document can also include data fields for vendor 334, home warrantytype 335, air condition indication 336, property amenities 337, andscheduling information 338, such as deadline 339 for scheduling aninspection for the home warranty, a preferred day 340 and time period341, and a list of day and time preferences 342. Other data fields arepossible. A user can search for a vendor via a new vendor button, whichcan bring up a list of different vendors providing home warranties. Oncethe document is complete, the user can submit the warranty request via asubmit button 346. The home warranty document form can be listed withthe inspection services list, which is described above with respect toFIG. 25 .

Sometime, sellers are not completely satisfied with the offer proposalreceived by the buyer client. For example, receiving a low-ball offer ona home can be frustrating for sellers. They may prepare a counter offerfor providing to the buyer client and the buying agent. The user canutilize the system to select and populate documents for the counteroffer.

As described above, the compliance system simplifies the selection andfilling out of real estate forms and agreements, keeps track of thestatus of documents and the disclosure of information, and assurescompliance checking. Additionally, the system supports agents and theirclients by providing categories of listing services, recommendingpreferred vendors, and coordinating interactions between clients andvendors.

Managing Public Real Estate Transaction Information

Documentation of the real estate transaction is important to properlyrecord in order to protect the rights of people to own and useparticular parcels of land and land-related resources. However, thetransparency and accountability of documentation is subject to severalobstacles. Generally, the documentation of a real estate transactionincludes the chain of title transaction records, tax records, records ofeasements, records of liens, inspection reports, and other documentsmandated for compliance requirements. Although buyers and sellers mayhave their own copies of records, their copies can be lost, discarded,damaged or destroyed over time. Property owners rely on otherinstitutions to maintain backup or master copies of various documents.

In traditional systems, a large set of stakeholders provide and keepcopies of separate and distinct parts of the required documentation. Thestakeholder institutions include county offices, lenders, titleinsurance companies, property inspectors, research reportingorganizations, and others. The parties to a transaction and the realestate brokerage may also keep copies.

A difficulty with this approach is that if a challenge arises laterabout a transaction, gathering the official records of the transactionmay require getting documents from many institutions and is extremelytime consuming. If discrepancies arise between versions of the records,the forensic methods for assessing fault and tampering are hamperedbecause few of the institutions employ technology that is well-protectedby computational security safeguards and adequate redundancy.Furthermore, the institutions themselves may have been replaced, goneout of business, or changed their record keeping systems. Theinstitutional records are subject to failure in long-term documentstorage since traditional paper-based records are subject to the usualhazards of being damaged, misplaced, or lost over time.

Additionally, digital records are also subject to loss over time and tomedia failure, while legacy databases can potentially become obsolete asnew generations of computers and databases are deployed. Further, errorsin transaction documents can be introduced as institutions update theirlegacy computer systems and migrate records from legacy systems to newones. Institutional effort in maintaining quality records depends on theavailable funds, skills, and vigilance of the institutions to maintainrecords going back through generations of previous computer systems andinstitutions.

Similarly, buying agents make a series of judgement calls about servicesand advice offered to their clients. Documents outlining or tracking theprofessional performance of buying agents is generally outside the scopeof government-held public record systems and mostly covers informationabout the services performed by the buying agent. If an issue arisesafter the sale, preserving information about purchase services can beimportant for the buyer, the buying agent, and sometimes otherstakeholders, such as the brokerage. Currently, the records containingthis information are generated and preserved by multiple sourcesincluding records kept by the seller, records kept by the sellingbroker, records from financial institutions, reports from inspectors,reports from real estate researchers, and others.

Blockchain for Real Estate Transactions

Such obstacles of recording publicly accessible transaction documentsand confidential records regarding the transaction can be overcome bybringing together all the important records of a real estate transactionand recording the records in an accountability blockchain ledger with atimestamp so that all of the documents for a transaction are availableat once in a single block on a blockchain under a compliance andaccountability blockchain approach. A traditional blockchain approach isnot sufficient for managing real estate transaction documents, but acompliance and accountability blockchain approach provides documentgeneration, compliance, and secure storage for real estate transactionsusing a centralized or decentralized approach for public access of thestored documents, as well as a one- or two-tier approach for storing andreplicating document records. Hereinafter, the phrases “compliance andaccountability blockchain approach” and “accountability blockchainapproach” are used interchangeably with the same intended meaning,unless otherwise indicated.

The documents provided to the accountability blockchain can be publiclyaccessible as described in commonly-owned U.S. Patent Application,titled “Blockchain-Based System and Method for Document Transformationand Accountability,” filed Sep. 4, 2019, and commonly-owned U.S. PatentApplication, titled “Multi-Tier Blockchain-Based System and Method forDocument Transformation and Accountability,” filed Sep. 4, 2019, thedisclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference, or remainconfidential with access only to the parties of the propertytransaction, unless otherwise approved, as described below withreference to FIG. 30 and in commonly-owned U.S. Patent Application,titled “Blockchain-Based System and method for Listing DocumentTransformation and Accountability,” filed Sep. 4, 2019, the disclosureof which is hereby incorporated by reference. The accountabilityblockchain is a continuously growing set of records or “blocks” forminga ledger of transactions. The blocks are linked and secured bycryptographic methods. Each block includes the data of a real estatetransaction together with a timestamp and a cryptographic hash of theprevious block.

The accountability blockchain is managed by a peer-to-peer network wherenodes, such as an electronic device, adhere to a protocol for inter-nodecommunication and for validating new blocks. Once recorded, the data inany given block cannot easily be altered retroactively without alteringall of the subsequent blocks. Such alteration is difficult due torequiring consensus of the network majority. The accountabilityblockchain approach allows participants to verify and audittransactions. In this way the blockchain resists modification of thedata maintained. The blockchain can be multi-tier and utilize supernodesthat act as recorders.

The accountability blockchain approach briefly described above forsecurely maintaining real estate transaction documents and generating anactive record of the documents is not merely the use of a currentblockchain technology. Implementation and generation of theaccountability blockchain requires additional and specific obstacles tobe overcome. For instance, in addition to obstacles regardingmaintaining real estate transaction documents, another concern is thatthe documents may not be genuine, such as not authorized by the requiredauthority or exact same versions of the formal documents signed for thetransaction. To ensure that all transaction documents are authentic,each document can be digitally signed by the authorizing parties and arecord of the collection of documents for the transaction is alsodigitally signed. The digitally signed documents help ensure that thesaved transaction documents are authenticated and are the exact versionsused in the transaction.

Once stored, there is a potential of deliberate alteration of thetransaction records by parties that are motivated to change thehistorical record. For conventional paper public documents, when mastercopies are made available for public inspection, there is always therisk that they might be removed, damaged, altered, or replaced byaltered versions. Digital records are also potentially subject toalteration and deletion depending on the security measures that are inplace. They are particularly at risk when the security teams ofinstitutions with low budgets are not skilled in security practices andtechnologies.

To ensure that transaction documents are secure and free fromalterations and modifications, the accountability blockchain approach isdeployed to preserve the public record, including strong computationalsecurity provisions, and to protect records against destruction ortampering. The traditional blockchain approach can be tailored tosupport real estate transactions and provide an open and distributedledger for recording the data of real estate transactions betweenparties in a verifiable and permanent way, as well as to maintain andtrack confidential records regarding the transaction.

An additional concern regarding maintaining transaction documents isthat an individual repository of digital information is subject tocatastrophic failure, either by natural disaster, media failure, ordeliberate damage by a motivated party. However, the accountabilityblockchain approach is generally decentralized and distributed acrossmany computers. Peer-to-peer networks have no central point of failure.When nodes in a blockchain validate transactions, they broadcast thecompleted transaction documents to other nodes. Every node in thenetwork has its own copy of the blockchain, resulting in massivedatabase redundancy. The massive redundancy of the network assures thatany damage to a single node does not prevent access to the publicrecords on the blockchain. In this way, the cryptographic mechanisms andhigh redundancy of blockchain ledgers provide forensically-inspectablerecords and high barriers to tampering that do not rely on the securityprovisions of any individual institution.

Storing Large Transactions on Blockchain

Digital transaction systems need to operate correctly even acrossinternational boundaries and under different legal systems andregulatory rules to ensure that the transaction documents are availableto be accessed anywhere and to ensure that the records are complete.Further, there is no central all-region legal authority to holdindependent international systems accountable. To ensure properfunctioning of the transaction system, the accountability blockchainapproach provides a computational basis for establishing trust. Thenodes (operated by “miners”) gather the records for a transaction tocreate a new block in competition with one another. In general,selecting the creator of a next block to be distributed across thenetwork to avoid centralization would discourage the stable continuanceof a large distributed network.

The accountability blockchain approach briefly described above forsecurely maintaining real estate transaction documents and generating anactive record of the documents is not merely the use of a currentblockchain implementation and generation of the accountabilityblockchain required many obstacles to be overcome. Conventionally, mostblockchain implementations, such as Bitcoin, were designed to recordanonymous financial transactions and to keep node costs down and toencourage many organizations to add nodes to the network, the systemrequirements for nodes require only a minimum of storage for savingtransaction data. For example, in 2017, saving the entire Bitcoin ledgerrequired only 125 gigabytes of free disk space and the amount of storageof content data per transaction in this network is about 40 bytes. SeePeck, Morgen E. & Moore, Samuel K. Special Report: Blockchain World.IEEE Spectrum, October 2017. Also, as of January 2017, there wereapproximately 6000 bitcoin nodes in that digital currency network. SeeConnel, Justin. How Much Does it Cost to run a Full Bitcoin Node? NewsBitcoin.com, Feb. 23, 2017. The health of the network depends on havingmany blockchain nodes, preferably at least thousands of nodes.

In designing new generations of blockchain systems for real estatetransaction and other applications beyond the original application ofdigital cash, there is a competing need to store and make accessiblelarge blocks of data on the network over the long term. Theaccountability blockchain approach balances the requirement for a largepool of low-cost nodes to robustly record the consensus of transactionswith the requirement that nodes have substantial storage andcomputational costs. Thus, one embodiment of the accountabilityblockchain employs a network with two layers of nodes to reconcile theserequirements. For example, the accountability blockchain approach caninclude a medium-sized network of supernodes (e.g. hundreds to thousandsof nodes) that bundle the real estate transaction package and robust,transparent and enduring storage and can also include a larger networkof 1^(st)-tier nodes (e.g. tens of thousands or larger nodes) fornotarizing hashes of the 2^(nd)-tier transactions.

Recording transactions in a distributed ledger of the blockchain hasless value if the information cannot be reliably, efficiently, andaccurately retrieved. As the number of documents grows, the challengesand resources increase for maintaining robust storage and efficientretrieval of them all. A design concern is that the expense of storingso much data could over time create an obstacle to wide participation bysupernodes on the block chain. In conventional blockchain systems forcurrency, the ongoing storage costs are relatively low. The costs ofmaintaining long-term are offset when nodes win enough commitment racessuch as is expected by proof-of-work protocols.

In one embodiment of the accountability blockchain approach, subsets ofsupernodes under contract can store only subsets of the documents. Forexample, some supernodes could select which transactions to store basedon location or value or some other content-related criterion. In otheralternatives, every n^(th) transaction can be stored and there could bean allocation scheme that limits the number of nodes on the network thatare licensed to store only subsets of the transactions. In that way,supernodes could specialize in markets, storing specific categories ofdocuments they store.

A known potential risk in conventional decentralized server networks forstoring files is that some of the servers could cheat by not actuallykeeping copies of the files. Instead, when they receive a retrievalrequest, they make a retrieval request to other nodes on the distributedstorage network. The problem with such selfish behavior is that documentstorage on the network becomes less redundant and robust. Various“proof-of-storage” technical approaches have been proposed to enablecatching server nodes that cheat Cecchetti, Ethan, Miers, Ian, Juels,Ari. One file for the Price of Three: Catching Cheating Servers inDecentralized Storage Networks. Hacking Distributed blog, Aug. 6, 2018and van Dijk, Marten, Rivest, R. L., Juels, Ari, Stefanov, Emil, Operea,Alina, Triandopoulos, Nikos. Hourglass Schemes: How to Prove that CloudFiles are Encrypted. CCS' 12 (ACM Conference on Computer Security),2012.

In an effort to discourage or prevent cheating, the accountabilityblockchain approach can include verification protocols that raise thecosts of cheating. The methods are similar to proof-of-work ideas inthat they create complexity challenges in storage and retrieval thatraise the costs of serving up the documents on request. The extracomplexity of the approach is offset at least in part by relaxing therequirement that all supernodes store all of the data.

As briefly discussed above, the idea is to admit classes of contractsand servers that agree to store only portions of the entire ledger forspecified periods of time. The expectation of long-term storage andretrieval would fail under conditions when storage and retrievalreimbursements are fixed, the cost of ongoing storage become too highand there is a fixed penalty for a node to stop providing the service.Furthermore, if the only remuneration for long-term storage is given upfront when the block is committed, there can be a lack of incentives fornew supernodes to join the network over time.

An inherent problem with “forever” guarantees covering perpetual filestorage and retrieval is that that the costs of reliable storage andretrieval for any particular file accumulate over time whereas the valueof most documents decreases with time. Whenever the network fails toretrieve documents from the ledger, there is potentially a loss ofreputation and goodwill for the network. This loss reflects on theentire network since the network as a whole may at times stop storingsome of the documents.

In practice, supernodes could have time-delimited commitment contractsfor guaranteed reliable storage and retrieval of the documents subjectto loss of stake on failure to keep the contract. This limits the longterm contractual and financial risks for supernodes. However, adifficulty with relying solely on time-limited contracts and fixed feesto maintain a viable set of supernodes is that the future costs ofstorage, retrieval and communication are not perfectly known. As costsgo up and down, new supernodes that can take advantage of changes incosts to out-compete older supernodes operating on fixed contracts.Judging from the history of property ownership records in history, it islikely that rapid access to most records of transactions older than afew hundred years would have limited value.

The accountability blockchain approach could also include a documentstorage and retrieval market with ongoing incentives for documentstorage and retrieval. Such a market can allow variable fees forretrieving scarce or otherwise expensive documents, based on suchfactors as the age of the transaction, the location of the property, andso on. In addition, the approach could use an auction to adjust the costof retrieval to vary with the value of the service. These variations inthe different embodiments enable trade-offs between the costs ofstorage, retrieval efficiency, and the public's good for having low-costaccess to the information.

In summary, the design challenge of the accountability blockchainapproach for real estate is to balance the requirement of large storagecapacity on nodes with the requirement for enabling a large pool oflow-cost nodes to robustly record the consensus of transactions. Toensure scalability and liveliness, the accountability blockchainapproach includes a multi-tier system. Scalability refers to thecapacity to operate at a larger scale, such as a large number of realestate transactions, while liveliness refers to operating at a quicklyenough for large scale data across many nodes. FIG. 27 is a blockdiagram showing a system 400 for document transformation andaccountability. The system 400 includes a compliance informationmanagement system 401, and a multi-tier blockchain. The complianceinformation management system 401 is described above in detail withrespect to FIG. 2 and is a client and stakeholder-facing platform thatis responsible for generating and transforming documents for a realestate transaction, as well as ensuring that the documents are incompliance with local and federal regulations, are correctly populated,and are complete. The compliance information management system 401 isconcerned with one real estate transaction at a time.

Once a transaction is complete, the transaction, including thedocuments, are stored on the multi-tier blockchain, which is responsiblefor maintaining a long-term data base of real estate transactions. Inone embodiment, the multi-tier blockchain can include two tiers, withsecond-tier supernodes 403 that act as recorders of the transaction andfirst level nodes that act as notaries. The nodes can be electronicdevices, including computers, phones, or other computing device, with anIP address and a connection to the Internet. In one embodiment, thesecond-tier can include hundreds to thousands of supernodes, while thefirst-tier can include more nodes than the first-tier, such as tens ofthousands of nodes. However, other numbers of nodes and supernodes arepossible and typically larger numbers are preferred.

The second-tier holds the tamperproof public records and makes theappropriate information available to the public. The second-tiersupernodes 403 are similar to the country recorder offices in realestate, and validate and store the large document package for thetransaction, including the executed contract, the chain of title, andthe funding of escrow. The document package can be the same packagegenerated by the compliance system, including those added via thecompliance system, such as a copy of the property deed. In a furtherembodiment, the documents can be different, including a subset of thedocuments in the package from the compliance system. For example, thesubsets can be generated by separating all documents for public accessand not for public access. Further, the second-tier supernodes can beused to check compliance or investigate a quality of service provided byan agent long after a transaction was completed by maintaininginformation about the purchase services provided by the buying agent andother information surrounding the property transaction.

The second-tier nodes bundle up and sign the package of information,computer a cryptographic hash of the information package, and provide anaccessible public record of the document package. The supernodes 403allow stakeholders to seek information regarding real estatetransactions in the public record. The first-tier includes nodes 304 toprovide a vastly redundant record of all transactions, while performingand distributed and tamperproof notary service that improves thesecurity and tamper-resistance of the second-tier. The nodes 404 of thefirst-tier act as notaries and allow stakeholders to check dates andaccuracy of the public record. The stakeholders can include owners ofthe property, as well as institutions, such as county offices, lenders,title insurance companies, property inspectors, research reportingorganizations, and others.

Each of the nodes 304 in the first-tier and the supernodes 403 in thesecond-tier can maintain a ledger, which is a record of the transactionsstored as blocks on the blockchain, that is available to the public. Forinstance, the blocks of each transaction form the ledger. When each ofthe nodes and supernodes has a copy of the ledger, alteration of therecord is much more difficult. However, in a further embodiment, lessthan all the nodes and supernodes can be associated with a ledger.

Node Selection on the Blockchain

The document packages for transfer of real property are recorded asblocks on the blockchain after at least one of the documents have beengenerated and reviewed for compliance, as described above with respectto FIGS. 1-14 . FIG. 28 is a flow diagram showing a method 410 fordocument transformation and accountability via blockchain. One or moredocuments, such as the real estate sale and purchase agreement, areprocessed (block 411) for transfer of a property through the compliancesystem, described above with respect to FIG. 2 , and a document packageis generated (block 412) for the real estate transaction. The documentpackage can include the executed contract, such as a purchase agreement,for the real estate transaction, a chain of title for the property ofthe transaction, and a record of the property funding. In a furtherembodiment, the document package can be divided into sets for differenttreatment. For instance, the document package can be divided intodocuments that are confidential and documents that are to be madeavailable to the public, as further described in detail below withrespect to FIG. 30 .

The document package is then digitally signed (block 413) by the partiesto the transaction. Additionally, all conditions of the agreement mustbe satisfied, including payment of an earnest money deposit by thebuyer. In one example, the deposit can be three percent of the agreementupon price of the property; however, other deposit amounts are possible.Once all conditions of the executed contact have been satisfied, such asthe packing signing and payment of earnest money, the document packageis submitted to the second-tier network of the accountabilityblockchain. Other conditions that must be satisfied prior to providingthe document package to the blockchain are possible.

Prior to entering the second-tier of the accountability blockchain, oneof the supernodes is selected (block 414) for adding the documentpackage as a block to the second-tier network. Selecting the supernodeis further described in detail below with respect to FIG. 29 . The blockis also broadcast (block 415) to the other supernodes and added (block416) to the blockchain ledgers maintained by the supernodes at thesecond-tier with a timestamp. In one embodiment, each supernode canstore a copy of the entire ledger for at least a predetermined amount oftime. In a further embodiment, subsets of the supernodes can each storeonly a subset of the ledger. Further still, supernodes may bespecialized and store only a particular type of data, such astransactions occurring in Washington or in California. Other methods forstoring copies of the ledger are possible.

The selected supernode submits (block 417) a request for notarization ofthe block to a first-tier node selected (block 418) for recordation, aswell as an immutable summary record, such as a cryptographic hash, ofthe transaction documents of the block that have been validated by thesupernode. At a minimum the immutable summary record of the block isthat if the documents are changed, the record is recomputed and the newrecord will differ from the original. A further property for theimmutable summary record includes difficulty to make a change or aseries of changes to the document, such that the record for the changeddocument is the same as the record of the original document.

The request for notarization can be provided by the selected supernodeprior to or after committing the block to the second-tier network. Thefirst-tier nodes compete to be selected to commit the hashed block tothe first-tier and the selected node is paid a transaction fee. Also,the selected node provides the hashed block to the other nodes in thefirst-tier for committing (block 419) to the blockchain of each node.Specifically, the hash of the transaction is committed as a record.Accordingly, each node acts as a notary of the network and provides arobust, broadly decentralized record of the transaction. Since multiplenodes keep a record of the transactions the record is difficult toalter. Also, since the transactions are each stored as a block in achain of blocks, altering data further in the chain is extremelydifficult without altering all of the subsequent blocks. The documentpackage can then be accessed by the public for viewing, such as via acomputer.

When a document package first enters the accountability blockchain,selecting the superode for committing the block to the second-tier isimportant to prevent any one supernode from having a central anddominant role. In one embodiment, the supernode with theleast-recent-block-recording can be selected. FIG. 29 is a flow diagramshowing, by way of example, a process 430 for selecting a supernode forblock recordation. First, those nodes that qualify as supernodes areidentified (block 431). In a proof-of-stake approach, a minimum stake ispredetermined to identify a set of nodes that qualify as supernodes. Inone embodiment, the stake can be a dollar amount, such as $100,000.However, other dollar amounts are possible. In a further embodiment, thedollar amount can change in a periodic auction to assure a robust, butnot too large set of supernodes. The staking minimum is held as asecurity deposit and is lost to the network if a user tampers with thefactuality of a transaction.

A time of the most recent supernode block commitment can be computed(block 432) by each supernode from the blockchain itself. Specifically,a time that each supernode most recently committed a block to thesecond-tier is determined for each supernode. Optionally, the times canbe broadcast (block 433) from each supernode to each other supernode forverification. In one embodiment, maintaining the times on the ledgershould be immutable. Subsequently, one of the supernodes with theoldest-most-recently-recorded-commitment is selected (block 434) to leadthe commitment of the current document package as a block in thesecond-tier. However, the supernodes must reach consensus regardingselecting the supernode with theoldest-most-recently-recorded-commitment. In one embodiment, a shorttime period is designated during which each member of availablesupernodes participates in a consensus vote to identify the least recentrecorder. To determine availability, the supernodes broadcast notices ofavailability at a frequent interval, such as in time with heartbeats persecond, and are considered fresh if the notices of availability are noolder than a longer interval, such as ten seconds. However, other timesfor the notice intervals and for determining freshness of the noticesare possible. Supernodes may be unavailable, such as when undergoingmaintenance or are busy. Finally, all of the supernodes broadcast theirinferred determination of the next node according to the recency rules.

Once selected, the supernode can receive (block 435) a fee for leadingthe commitment of the current block. In a further embodiment, all thesupernodes can receive a fee. Once the current block is recorded, therecording recency of the selected supernode is updated to the currenttime and that node cannot be selected again until the currenttransaction is older than the most recent transactions of all the otheravailable supernodes. Consensus regarding recency of recordation can beconfirmed when all supernodes maintain complete logs of a transaction.However, if the logs are not complete, consensus can be reached using acertain percentage of the supernodes, such as two-thirds, that agree onthe supernode with oldest-most-recently-recorded-commitment. If suchpercentage is met, consensus is reached and that supernode is selected.For example, the Byzantine Fault Tolerant can be used to determineconsensus. After consensus is reached, all of the supernodes validatethe block signature representing an owner of the supernode, andcryptographic hash and add the block to the second-tier blockchain.

Other methods for selecting the supernode for commitment of the blockare possible. In a proof-of-work approach, the first node to solve acryptographic puzzle and present a valid block to be committed, is thenode that gets selected to record the new block and paid for theservice. A node trying to add a new block must provide a cryptographicproof-of-work along with it. Different kinds of proof of work can beused, such as such as a hash function, integer factorization, or guidedtour puzzle protocol. One approach is for nodes to solve the challengeof computing a specified kind fixed-length hash of the data where thefirst part of the hash is a string of zeroes of given length. If morethan one miner finds a solution, the one with the earliest timestamp isselected.

A proof-of-work-with-stake allows those supernodes that have a minimumlarge stake to be eligible. A first eligible supernode to complete aproof-of work commits the block and receives the fee. The proof-of-workcan include a mathematical puzzle, such as a hash function, integerfactorization, or guided tour puzzle protocol. The puzzle should bedifficult, but not too complication to prevent a delay in committing theblock. Generally, there is no time limit to complete the puzzle andreport proof-of-work and thus, can be subject to potential collusion byselfish miners. To prevent such problem from occurring, selfish miningcan be prohibited by pools that command less than one fourth of theresources, such as in selfish mining.

Another embodiment for selecting a supernode and reaching consensusincludes a combination of proof-of-work and least-recently-recordedtransaction. The first node to complete the proof-of-work is selectedunless that supernode added the most recent block to the network. Inthat case, the next supernode to complete the proof of work within apredetermined time is selected.

Deterministic random distribution can also be used to determineconsensus of a supernode selection and provides a known uniform randomnumber generator that is used by all of the supernodes in thesecond-tier pool of supernodes that meet the minimum large stake. Theseed of the random number generator is the middle ten digits of the hashof the previously recorded node, scaled to the size of the pool. Theproduced random number is used as the index of the supernode in the listof supernodes sorted by their IP addresses. If the designated supernodehas not produced the next record within a time interval, the processrepeats. Other methods for reaching consensus are also possible.

Alternative Implementations

Additionally, other configurations of the accountability blockchainapproach are possible. For instance, rather than a network ofsecond-tier supernodes, a set of second supernodes can exist. Any one ofthe supernodes in the set can bundle the transaction for submission tothe first-tier network for notarizing. Further, the second-tiersupernodes can employ approaches other than block chain to providerobust long-term storage, such as publicaly-visible ledgers thatpreclude changing old records.

A further embodiment includes a single homogenous network of supernodesthat commit real estate document packages to storage on a distributedstorage network, such as a blockchain. All of the nodes provide enoughstorage for document packages and use a blockchain approach fordistributed and decentralized storage and accountability of theinformation and the first-tier network is not needed because thesupernodes will notarize the packages.

In still a further embodiment, a single-tier blockchain can be used,including, for example, first tier network nodes, as described incommonly-owned U.S. Patent Application, titled “Single-TierBlockchain-Based System and Method for Document Transformation andAccountability,” filed Sep. 4, 2019, and in commonly-owned U.S. PatentApplication, titled “Single-Tier Blockchain-Based System and Method forDocument Transformation and Accountability via Different Node Types,”filed Sep. 4, 2019, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated byreference. The single tier of nodes would record the propertytransactions, which would be stored and maintained over time as a chainof title. The actual documents can be stored on a centralized server orin a traditional database and a check sum can be performed to ensurethat no tampering is present.

The accountability blockchain approach, as described above, has focusedon documents that are to be made publicly available. In addition to orin lieu of the publicly available documents, the accountabilityblockchain approach can be used to provide reliable, tamperproof accessto confidential information about a property transaction. For instance,documentation about properties shown or suggested to a buyer, when abuyer was advised about the condition of a property, trends in theneighborhood, or property bidding strategies are not material to therecording the actual property transaction, but can be material towhether the buying agent acted in the best interests of the buyer. Othertypes of confidential purchase information are possible.

Today, most of these services are performed in manual, time-consuming,error-prone, and expensive ways, and the information regarding thebuying agent's services and specifics of the transaction process remainconfidential. While, some information becomes publicly available, suchas the purchase agreement and deed, other information related to thetransaction need not be available to the public since they are notcentral for determining chain of title, documenting liens, or providinga basis for tax records. The confidential information, as describedabove, can include correspondence between the real estate agent andclient, a list of properties discussed and viewed, and whether the buyerwas advised to request particular inspections or get research reports,as well as other types of confidential information.

Storing Confidential Information on the Blockchain

Although the confidential listing information is not made part of thepublic record for the transaction, maintaining such information can beextremely important to help prevent disputes and help settle anydisputes that arise. For example, if further information becomes knownto the buyer or buying agent after the transaction, either party maycome to believe that important information was withheld during theprocess that had adverse effects on them. Addressing the issues wouldinclude careful examination of the documentation. Yet, the buyer may nothave kept complete copies of the document package and want to rely onthe brokerage of the buying agent, which now has a conflict of interestin assisting them. The buyer may believe that his copy of the documentpackage is missing some information or that it differs from what heremembers. The copies of the document package kept by the buying agentmay differ in critical places from the document package kept by thebuyer. Either party may suspect that the other party tampered with theircopy of the documents in order to cover up some issue.

To help prevent disputes and maintain a clear record of facts or actionsduring the transaction, a complete copy of the document package,including contract-related information, may be stored via theaccountability blockchain approach. FIG. 30 is a flow diagram showing byway of example, a process 440 for maintaining confidential documentsrelated to a purchase transaction. A document package is accessed (block441) from the compliance system, including documents that are to be madepublicly accessible and documents that are material to execution of theproperty transaction, but need not be publicly accessible. The documentpackage can then be divided (block 442) into two or more sets ofdocuments for committing to the blockchain. The documents can be dividedby author, subject, date, or publicly accessible versus non-publiclyaccessible documents. Other factors for dividing the documents in thepackage are possible.

Once divided, any subsets of documents that are not publicly accessiblecan be optionally encrypted (block 443) as confidential information.Next, each subset of the documents can be provided (block 444) to theblockchain via the second-tier supernodes and first-tier nodes, asdescribed above in detail with respect to FIG. 28 . The blockchainmechanisms for guarding against tampering apply to these records in thesame way as for guarding public information. This confidentialinformation can be encrypted to inhibit public access. Decryption keyscan be provided to both to the buyer and the buying agent, to give themlong-term access to the information on the blockchain.

To ensure that the confidential documents are only accessible byauthorized users, different stakeholders can have different accountsbased on the types of information that stakeholder is allowed to access.For instance, when a stakeholder needs to access the confidentialdocuments for publicly accessible documents for a property transaction,the user can login to his account and submit (block 445) a request for aparticular set of documents. The account of the requesting stakeholdercan be verified (block 446) and if valid, the requested set of documentsis provided (block 447) to the stakeholder. Finally, prior to receipt orafter receipt of the documents, a private key of the requestingstakeholder can be used to decrypt the documents in the set.

For the public real estate transaction data, such as buyer and selleridentification, property, transaction time, property price, easements,and other relevant information, multiple listing services with which thelisting and buying agents have subscriptions, can be used to retrievethe information from the second-tier supernodes. Information protocolsanalogous to or compatible with protocols used for MLS services can becreated, and information query and delivery services can be offered toother MLS providers.

Further, unauthorized release of the confidential documents can betracked to the releasing party by using a watermark. For example, secretkeys are kept or distributed for the sellers and the agent. The keys canbe used later in retrieving and decrypting the documents off theblockchain. Neither the seller nor the agent would have the capacity tochange what is on the blockchain. Two copies of, for example, non-publicdocuments can be kept on the blockchain—one encrypted by a key for theseller and the other encrypted by a key for the agent. Each copy can bedigitally watermarked to show the “seller's copy” or the “agent's copy.”The watermark can be specific to that stakeholder so that if thestakeholder releases the documents without prior authorization, thestakeholder's identity can be determined to address the situation withthat stakeholder. Accordingly, the documents provided to differentstakeholders can be the same documents with different watermarks so thatboth parties have an interest in keeping the non-public informationprivate. If a copy becomes distributed to the public, the watermarkshows which party was responsible since their key had to be used in therelease.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described asreferenced to the embodiments thereof, those skilled in the art willunderstand that the foregoing and other changes in form and detail maybe made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of theinvention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A blockchain-based method for purchase documenttransformation and accountability, comprising: maintaining a set ofoffer documents for a real estate transaction in a database, wherein theoffer documents comprise public documents to be recorded for the realestate transaction and private documents regarding the real estatetransaction added to the public documents; upon completion of populatingthe offer documents, performing a review of the offer documents in theset comprising comparing populated fields of each document withpredetermined offer compliance guidelines via compliance logic; when thefields of the offer documents in the set comply with the predeterminedoffer compliance guidelines, compiling the offer documents as an offerfor the transaction; and dividing the offer documents for the realestate transaction into a group of the public documents and a separategroup of the private documents once population of the offer documents iscomplete; separately recording the public documents and the privatedocuments from the offer documents as separate data blocks, furthercomprising: providing each data block to a tier of supernodes thatperforms a recording function for each data block; selecting one of thesupernodes in the tier and adding each data block to a ledger oftransactions via the selected supernode; storing a copy of each datablock on each of the supernodes; transmitting an immutable record ofeach data block from the selected supernode to a tier of network nodesthat perform a notary function for each data block from the selectedsupernode separate from the recording function of the supernodes,wherein the tier of network nodes has more nodes than the tier ofsupernodes; and committing the immutable record of each data block to ablockchain via each of the network nodes in the tier.
 2. The methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising: maintaining a checklist forthe offer; and providing a notification if any documents are missingfrom the set of offer documents.
 3. The method according to claim 1,further comprising: compiling a set of documents for a counter offer;and populating fields of the documents for the counter offer with thereceived data and further received data.
 4. The method according toclaim 1, further comprising: providing customized market changes for theoffer.
 5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: providinga list of third party services related to the transaction and vendorsfor each of the services.
 6. The method according to claim 5, furthercomprising: receiving a selection of one or more of the vendors on thelist; providing recommendations for the selected vendors; and triggeringmessage delivery to at least one of the selected vendors.
 7. The methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising at least one of: maintaining acalendar of tasks for the transaction associated with the set of offerdocuments; reviewing the tasks and identifying one or more of adependency between two or more of the tasks, a timing conflict forperforming two or more of the tasks, and an interaction between two ormore of the tasks; and providing a display of the tasks, taskdependencies, timing conflicts, and interactions.
 8. The methodaccording to claim 7, further comprising: generating from the calendaran alert for one or more of the tasks, comprising one or more of: noticethat a deadline for completion of the task is approaching; an assignmentof the task; and a re-assignment of the task.
 9. The method according toclaim 1, further comprising: selecting one or more inspection electionsin one of the offer documents in the set; obtaining additional offerdocuments based on the selected inspection elections; and adding theadditional offer documents to the set of offer documents.
 10. The methodaccording to claim 9, further comprising: receiving one or more orderedinspections based on the selected inspection elections; and populatingan inspection form for each ordered inspection.
 11. The method accordingto claim 1, further comprising: maintaining a log of real estateproperties; and adding a real estate property associated with the offerto the log.
 12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:encrypting by the supernodes the stored copies of the data blocks. 13.The method according to claim 1, further comprising: identifying theselected supernode, comprising: forming a group of available supernodesbased on a minimum stake associated with each supernode; and designatingone of the available supernodes that least recently recorded a previoustransaction as the selected supernode.
 14. The method according to claim13, further comprising: conducting a vote by the group of availablesupernodes to identify the selected supernode.
 15. The method accordingto claim 14, further comprising at least one of: broadcasting by eachavailable supernode a notice of a most recent transaction recordation tothe other supernodes in the group of available supernodes prior to thevote; and obtaining the most recent transaction recordation for eachavailable supernode in the group of available supernodes from the tierof network nodes prior to the vote.
 16. The method according to claim 1,further comprising: identifying the selected supernode, comprising atleast one of: generating a group of the supernodes from the tier ofsupernodes, each of the supernodes in the group having associated stakesthat satisfy a minimum stake and choosing one of the supernodes from thegroup that completes a proof-of-work problem first as the selectedsupernode; identifying one of the supernodes from the group thatcompletes a proof-of-work problem first as the selected supernode,unless the supernode selected from the group added a previous mostrecent transaction to the tier of network nodes, then choosing the nextsupernode in the group that completes the proof-of-work problem; anddetermining a random number via a seed comprising a portion of theimmutable record of the selected supernode, utilizing the random numberas an index of one of the supernodes in the group in a list of thesupernodes in the group sorted by IP address, and choosing one of thesupernodes in the group as the selected supernode when the chosensupernode has not recorded a previous real estate transaction within apredetermined time interval.
 17. The method according to claim 1,wherein the transaction for set of offer documents is validated andrecorded in the ledger prior to providing the immutable records of thedata blocks to the tier of network nodes.
 18. The method according toclaim 1, further comprising at least one of: storing a copy of theledger on each of the supernodes; and storing a portion of the ledger oneach of a subset of supernodes.
 19. The method according to claim 1,further comprising: identifying one of the network nodes in the tier tocommit the immutable records from the selected supernode, wherein thenetwork nodes in the tier compete to be the identified network node tocommit the immutable records to the tier of network nodes.
 20. Themethod according to claim 19, further comprising: paying a transactionfee to the identified network node in the tier of network nodes tocommit the immutable record of the each data block to the tier ofnetwork nodes.
 21. The method according to claim 20, further comprising:transmitting the transaction associated with the set of offer documentsto the selected supernode upon execution of a contract and provision ofan earnest money deposit.